


Hopes, Dreams, and DETERMINATION

by Dragonsrule18



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adorable Monster Kid, Author likes to chat in the comments section, Awkward Flirting, Backstory, Bad Cooking, Banter, Best Friends, Big Brother Sans, Blood and Injury, But Frisk's Own Powers Will Come Into Play Eventually, But She WILL Become nicer, But that's okay because so is Frisk, Chara Makes Puns, Chara Needs a Hug, Chara Protection Squad, Chara and Frisk Have A Soul Link, Chara and Undyne Backstory, Chara is comforting, Chara's Face Becomes Melty When She's Angry, Cinnamon Roll Papyrus, Comfort, Concerts, Depressed Sans, Dormant Reset Powers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Family Fluff, Female Chara (Undertale), Female Frisk, First Date, Flashbacks, Flowey Is A Dick, Flowey Is A Huge Douche, Flowey Is Kind Of A Stalker, Flowey Misses Chara, Flowey Shows Emotion When Chara Is Mentioned, Flowey's For now, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Friendship, Frisk Needs A Hug, Frisk is Kind Of A Thief, Frisk is a Sweetheart, Goat Mom Is Best Mom, Good W. D. Gaster, Grillby's, Guilt-Ridden Chara, Happy Ending, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, I Use Way Too Many Tags, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Male Monster Kid, Memorials, Mentions of child neglect, Mind Reading And Memory Sharing Through Soul Link, Neglected Frisk, Overprotective Sans, Pacifist Frisk, Panic Attacks, Papyrus Being Papyrus, Papyrus Is A Very Worried Brother, Papyrus Knows More Than He Lets On, Papyrus Needs A Hug, Papyrus Tries Again To Reason With Undyne, Papyrus and Frisk Friendship, Papyrus is awkward at dating, Papyrus is the best best friend, Poor Sans (Undertale), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Powerful Papyrus, Proactive Papyrus, Protective Papyrus, Protective Sans, Protective Undyne, Sad Papyrus, Sans Actually Keeps His Freaking Promise, Sans And Papyrus Remember Gaster, Sans Being Sans, Sans Has Issues, Sans Has Night Terrors, Sans Makes Puns, Sans Needs A Hug, Sans Remembers Resets, Sans is an eavesdropper, Sans misses Chara, Sans trains Frisk, Scientist W. D. Gaster, Serious Papyrus, Shyren's Talent Agent Actually Has Lines, Skeleton Puns, Slightly More Proactive Sans, Slow Building Relationships, Soft Chara, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Survivor Guilt, Tags Are Fun, Though he holds back so he doesn't hurt anyone badly, Training, Undertale Saves and Resets, Undyne Swearing, Undyne's A Bit Of A Dick Too, Unintentionally Flirty Frisk, Vengeful Undyne, Void Dad Is Best Dad, Waterfall (Undertale), Worried Papyrus, Yellow Soul Screwed Up, anxious Frisk, chara is a ghost, chara is good, dadster gaster, frisk has a sister, how undyne lost her eye, mentions of drug use, powerful sans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2018-12-09 11:39:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 65,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11668398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsrule18/pseuds/Dragonsrule18
Summary: Frisk grew up in a home with neglectful, drug using parents. With a little sister to take care of, Frisk goes to Mt. Ebott to collect a flower specimen for a professor in town who was willing to pay three hundred dollars for it. When she falls into the Underground, she finds danger, but also family and friendship. With the help of a mysterious ghost girl named Chara who only she can see and who she shares a connection with, as well as some new friends, especially a certain pair of skeleton brothers, Frisk tries to get back home to her sister, but what will be the cost? And how far will Frisk go to protect both her sister and her new friends?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first time I've brought a work to Archive Of Our Own! I hope all of you enjoy! Please comment and let me know what you think! I also have this story on Fanfiction.net under the user name of Dragonsrule18 as well as several other works.

Thirteen year old Frisk set a bowl of ramen on their worn dining room table in front of her six year old sister, Tina, a pretty little girl with long brown hair pulled into braids and a pink dress. "Eat up, sis." She then sat down with her own bowl, which contained much less than her sister's.

"Don't you want more?" Tina asked, her big brown eyes looking up at her sister worriedly.

"Nah, kiddo, I'm not really that hungry." Frisk said to reassure her baby sister, ruffling Tina's braids. She was, but their food supplies were a little low and it was much more important that her sister got fed. Tina nodded, but when Frisk wasn't looking, slipped a spoonful of her ramen into Frisk's bowl. She was young, but she did understand that Frisk would sometimes go without food for her and the little girl didn't like her sister going hungry.

"When are Mom and Dad coming home?" Tina asked after a few bites of her dinner.

Frisk wanted to reassure her sister, but didn't want to lie either. "I don't know." Their parents left them alone for days at a time, going out partying and using drugs. They often came home high, and while they had never laid a hand on Frisk or Tina, they did not take care of them either. Frisk had pretty much raised herself and then her sister after her sister had been born. She changed the subject. "How was your day at school?"

Tina happily told Frisk about her art project and how her teacher had given her a gold sticker for how well she had done on her spelling test, and Frisk smiled and listened to everything her baby sister had to say. They finished dinner and Frisk washed the dishes with Tina drying for her, then she helped Tina with her homework. Frisk was far from the best student in her eighth grade class, but at least first grade homework wasn't too hard.

"Now Tina, I have to go out." Frisk told her sister gently after they finished. "I'll be gone for a little while."

Tina bit her lip. "Do you have to go?"

"Unfortunately, I do." she told her. "But I will be back, I promise. Now, I want you to lock the door. Don't let anyone in unless it's me. If you get hungry, we have crackers, but don't eat too many."

Tina nodded. "Will you be back before bedtime?" Frisk always read a bedtime story from a very worn out book of fairy tales to her sister and it was both girls' favorite part of the day.

"I'll try to be, kiddo." Frisk replied, not wanting to lie to her sister. She didn't know how long the trip would take, but it was necessary if she wanted to be able to feed them both.

Tina nodded and gave her a huge hug. "I'll miss you..."

"I'll miss you too, baby sister, but I'll back as soon as I can." she promised and hugged her sister back, ruffling her hair once again. Tina giggled softly and swatted at her hand. Frisk smiled and kissed her sister's head before leaving their tiny, dingy house.

...

Frisk sighed as she headed to Mt. Ebott. She hated leaving her sister alone for any period of time, but a professor in town wanted a very rare golden flower specimen that only grew near the top of the mountain and being too old to climb the mountain himself, would pay three hundred dollars to whoever got him one. Though the mountain was pretty small, most were too afraid to even approach it. Several mysterious disappearances had happened there and many believed that the mountain was haunted as no bodies had ever been found. Frisk too was afraid of the mountain, but desperation won out over fear. The fact was that she needed the money. Most of what her parents got from welfare was spent on drugs, often leaving her and Tina without money for necessities. Frisk, too young to be hired for a normal job, had taken as many odd jobs as she could, trying to keep her sister fed and clothed. Danger or not, the three hundred dollars was too much to pass up. It would fill their pantry and get Tina some new clothes, and maybe some for her as well. Her own striped shirt and shorts were very worn, and there were holes in her shoes.

It took a few hours and was approaching sundown when she reached where she needed to be. She looked around for the golden flowers. She saw a small cluster of them near the edge of a cliff and sighed. They would be hard to get to, but not impossible. She'd just have to watch her step. Slowly, carefully, she crept towards them along the cliff, needing to be incredibly careful so she wouldn't fall. Thankfully, she managed to reach them, and carefully got a mason jar out of her backpack, filling it with soil before gently uprooting a golden flower.

But then she felt the edge of the cliff beneath her tremble. Looking down, she saw cracks appearing in the ground beneath her feet. Her heart racing, she tried to get to safety, but it was too late. The ground crumbled beneath her and she fell screaming towards the abyss. She tried to grab onto something, but there was nothing to grab onto. She felt something warm crackle around her before everything went black...


	2. Flowey, Toriel And A Mysterious Girl

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All right, second chapter is up! Let me know what you think!

"Ow..." Frisk groaned as she sat up, finding herself on a patch of golden flowers. She started to inspect herself. Her arms and legs were scraped up pretty bad and her ankle really hurt. She moved her arms and legs to see if anything was broken. Thankfully, nothing was, though her ankle had definitely been twisted.

She looked around to see she appeared to be in some sort of ruins with stone walls around her. She could see a hallway nearby. I never saw this before...Am I in some secret part of the mountains? Or am I dead? She certainly didn't feel dead. She doubted her ankle would hurt this much if she was. She stood up and though her ankle flared in pain, she could still walk.

Looking for a way out, she came across a hallway. Seeing no other options, she limped down it, heading through a huge doorway.

And that's when she came across a golden flower, planted in a small patch of grass, looking much like the ones she had been about to collect, but this one had a face, creepily enough. Frisk jumped about a mile when it moved suddenly, raising its head on its own to look up at her. Its beady black eyes locked onto hers and it gave her a wide grin, almost if it had been expecting her.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey! Flowey the flower!" it told her in a somewhat high pitched male voice.

Frisk's eyes were wide with shock. "And I think I hit my head..." She closed her eyes, but when she opened them, the talking flower was still there. She then pinched herself, making the flower look at her weirdly. The pinch hurt, but the flower still didn't disappear. "Okay, I know I'm still dreaming! Flowers can't talk, so I have to be dreaming!" She gripped her head and yanked at her short hair, then shook her head, trying to snap out of it. "Okay, I won't wake up, so I have to prove to myself I'm dreaming! See, my hand will go right through you!" She reached out a finger, expecting it to go right through Flowey.

*poke*

Flowey glared at her. A vine slithered out of the ground and smacked her hand. Hard. "Hey! Hands off the goods, kid!"

"Ow! That actually...hurt?" She stared at him, eyes wide.

"You done having your little episode now?" he asked, rolling his eyes.

"Um, yeah, I guess...Holy shit, you're actually real?! Oops, if you are real, I was super rude to you... Sorry about that... Um, hi?" she babbled.

"Of course I'm real, stupid!" Flowey snapped, then forced himself to calm down. He then came closer and inspected her. "Hmm... You're new to the Underground, aren't 'cha? Not sure why I asked, due to your total cluelessness, so you must be new. Golly, you must be so confused!" He gave her a friendly smile, but something about it made her feel more uncomfortable than welcomed. "Someone will have to teach you how things work around here. I guess little ol' me will have to do!"

"Um, thank you?" Frisk said, more like a question than anything else. Something felt...off...about the way this flower was smiling at her, but she didn't want to piss him off until she understood what was going on.

"Now, in the underground, we have a very special way of spreading LV around." the creepy flower said.

"Um, LV?" Frisk asked, confused and beyond uncomfortable.

"Yeah, LOVE." Flowey explained, saying it in a strange way. "It makes your SOUL grow much stronger. SOULS are weak at first, but with LOVE, they get more powerful. Now, you want some LOVE, don't you? Don't worry, I'll share some with you!"

"Um, I appreciate the offer, but I'm okay." Frisk said, backing away quickly from the flower.

"Hey, I'm happy to help you! Now down here in the Underground, we spread love through little white..friendliness pellets." he explained, still grinning.

"Look, I'm not interested, so leave me alone, you pervert!" she yelled, trying to sound braver than she felt. "Keep your "white friendliness pellets" to yourself!"

"Wait. Wha? Kid, I think you're confused again. Settle down. All I want is to be friends!" Flowey quickly made some white seed-like pellets appear in the air. "Are you ready? Move around! Catch as many as you can!" He shot the pellets at her and she yelped and leapt out of the way, her ankle flaring in pain.

"Hey, buddy, you missed them. Let's try this again, okay. Catch the bullets...I mean, friendliness pellets!" Flowey said with a faint smirk, a taunting edge to his voice. He shot them at her and once again, she tried to dodge, but though she missed most of them, her ankle slowed her down and she was hit by a few in the side, causing her to cry out in pain.

Flowey's face then changed from his sweet and innocent facade to an evil grin, looking completely demonic. "You idiot...in this world, it's kill or be killed!" His evil grin grew wider. "Why would anyone pass up an opportunity like this?" He made a massive ring of white bullets around Frisk, leaving the girl with nowhere to dodge. **"Die!"**

Frisk looked around for an escape, but she had nowhere to go. She dropped to the ground and curled into a ball, trying to protect her head and vital organs as the bullets moved closer...

And then a sudden blast of fire came from her right, hitting the evil flower and sending him flying, making the bullets dissipate before they could hit her. "What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor innocent youth..." a soft, motherly voice said and Frisk uncurled and glanced up at her savior. Her eyes widened as she saw a white furred monster who looked female with the face of a goat, floppy ears, a small set of goat horns, and surprisingly kind red eyes who was wearing a long purple dress with grayish white sleeves. A strange symbol in a lighter shade of purple was on her chest. The monster knelt and offered a five fingered hand with small blunt claws to help her up. Frisk flinched away at first, frightened.

"Do not be afraid, my child. I am Toriel, caretaker of the ruins." the monster said gently. Frisk looked up into kind dark eyes and felt herself relax. Unlike Flowey's falsely sweet tone, this person's voice felt genuinely kind and caring with no sort of deceit about it. "Oh, you poor thing! You're hurt! Let's get you through the catacombs and get you healed up." She gently scooped Frisk into her arms effortlessly like the teenager was nothing more than a small baby.

Frisk was still nervous, but Toriel had just saved her life and was being nicer to her than she had ever had an adult be. And if Toriel wanted to kill her, she would have already or she would have let that evil flower do it. Frisk allowed herself to relax into Toriel's arms. "Thank you." she whispered.

"You're very welcome, little one." Toriel told her. She was extremely gentle and careful not to jostle Frisk's swollen ankle as she carried her into a bright purple room and up a set of concrete stairs. She then passed through another doorway and entered a room with several rows of stumps and walked across the second and fourth rows. "The ruins are full of puzzles as a security measure." she explained to a confused Frisk. "They're ancient fusions between diversions and door keys, and you need to solve them to get from room to room." The next room contained several switches and Toriel showed her which ones she could press to get to the next room. She actually had them marked so guests in the ruins wouldn't get confused. Toriel also admitted sheepishly that the markings were for her benefit as well.

They then entered a room with a training dummy and Toriel remembered something. "Now, despite what that horrible, horrible flower told you, violence is NOT the best way to handle a fight, little one. Sometimes talking will calm everything down, and kind actions will help ease a conflict. Sometimes monsters will attack if they're angry or afraid, but stay calm and be gentle. There's always a way to end a fight peacefully with no bloodshed."

They finally stopped in a room with some medical supplies, where Toriel tenderly treated Frisk's bruises and scrapes, fussing over her like a mother would. She then wrapped a special bandage around her ankle. It glowed and immediately began soothing the pain. Toriel explained that it was magical and had healing properties.

"The sprain will be completely healed by tomorrow." Toriel told her with a smile and gently ruffled Frisk's hair like Frisk had always done for her little sister. "Now, will you be all right alone for a bit? I need to pick up some groceries." She looked over Frisk's underweight frame with worry, remembering how a certain other little girl had been that thin when Toriel had taken her into her home. "You're much too thin. We need to get some decent meals into you."

"T-Thanks, but you don't need to..." Frisk started.

Toriel gently cut her off. "I want to. Now, I'd like for you to stay in this room. These ruins can be dangerous to explore alone. Here. I'll give you this cell phone." She handed Frisk a flip top cell phone with her number programmed in. Frisk took it, holding it carefully in her hands like it was a priceless jewel. "If you have a need for anything, please call. Now, be good, all right?" She then said goodbye to Frisk and went off.

Frisk waited in the room for a while. Fifteen minutes later, Toriel called up, telling her she would be a little late because a white dog had stolen her flour. Frisk hid a laugh and reassured her that this was fine. About ten minutes after that, Frisk got bite-dialed by said dog and could hear it panting and Toriel calling in the background for the dog to please come back with her cell phone. Frisk hung up the phone, laughing and hoping Toriel got her phone back from the thieving white canine.

A while later, Frisk was restless. She knew Toriel wanted her to stay in that room, but she also wanted to find a way around and out of the ruins. Quietly, she left the room, getting a call from Toriel a few minutes later.

"Hi, it's Toriel. That dog stole my phone, but I got it back. You have not left the room, have you? There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try to solve them by yourself. Be good, all right?" Frisk felt guilty for leaving the room, but she reassured Toriel that she would be good before Toriel hung up.

"Ribbit, ribbit. Excuse me, human." a sudden voice said from behind her.

"Augh!" Frisk yelped and jumped a foot in the air before turning to see a creature that could have been a frog, but was much bigger, almost up to her waist. It was mostly white, but had a faint hint of green on its cheeks, three black spots on its chest, and a black belly that had a pattern with what looked like big white eyes and a frown. She could have sworn the eyes on the stomach blinked at her, but she ignored this as best she could to focus on the main creature, wanting to keep her sanity intact.

"Sorry. I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you act a certain way or fight until you almost defeat them, they might not want to battle you any more. If a monster does not want to fight you, please, use mercy, human." The frog looked at her with pleading and a bit of fear.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt or off anyone." Frisk said, shocked that the little frog was acting like she was gonna seriously hurt or kill someone. Did she look like a genocidal maniac or a serial killer?

"Good." he said with a sigh of relief before hopping away.

Frisk shrugged with a confused expression before continuing on. She then accidentally stepped on a sleeping Froggit's toe. It yelped and jolted awake, instinctively firing a sharp barrage of flies at Frisk.

Frisk quickly jumped out of the way, freaked out at first and then remembering what Toriel had said. "Whoa. That was a fast attack. I'm sorry for stepping on you, little guy. I didn't mean to." she told the creature, hoping soft words would calm it down so it would leave her alone.

The Froggit didn't understand her words, but he liked the tone of them and smiled, and seeing that she wasn't going to hurt him, dropped a few pieces of gold at her feet before hopping off.

"Ookay...That was really weird." Frisk muttered to herself and continued on. In one room, she got a piece of Monster Candy which she stuck in her pocket to give to her sister later, then nearly fell through the floor and encountered a tiny, timid creature that looked like a cross between a bedsheet ghost and a moth with fluttery little wings which calmed down as soon as she spoke soothingly to it. It dropped a piece of gold at her feet shyly, then ran away before she could even thank it.

She then got called up again by Toriel. "For no reason, which do you prefer? Cinnamon or butterscotch?" Frisk had never had much of either, but chose butterscotch and thanked Toriel. But only five seconds later, Toriel called up again, asking if she minded cinnamon with butterscotch. Frisk wasn't picky and was just grateful to be fed, so she reassured Toriel that she didn't mind. Toriel called her yet again a few minutes later, asking if she had any allergies, which she didn't. She then continued through the rooms, and being pretty terrible at puzzles, took at least half an hour to solve a complicated floor puzzle which involved having to step on the right places to avoid falling through a hole in the floor, and fall she did at least eight times before getting it right. Thank goodness for Toriel placing soft cushions at the bottom of each hole, or she would be suffering from more than just wounded pride. Along the way, she had to calm down a few more nervous monsters which did give her a hit or two when she couldn't figure out how to calm them right away or accidentally made it worse, but then they gave her gold once calmed, either as a thank you or an apology; she wasn't sure. She then had to solve a bridge puzzle which was thankfully pretty straightforward and beg a sentient rock to move in the right direction for her so she could deactivate the spikes on the bridge. This world she had fallen into was so weird...

Once entering the room, she saw what could only be a ghost, slightly translucent white with closed eyes, laying on a bridge that she needed to get across, saying "z" over and over again for some weird reason. "Are they gone yet?" she heard them mumble before they resumed saying "z" out loud repeatedly, pretending to sleep.

She hid a giggle as this weird ghost was cute rather than scary. "Sorry, I'm not gone yet. Can I get through?" She gave the ghost a gentle nudge, which only succeeded in scaring them, and they started crying, which somehow made tears drop down from the ceiling in a hard rain that actually HURT. "Ow! Hey, please don't cry! I didn't mean to hurt or scare you. I just wanted to get through." she said soothingly, trying to keep her voice calm so she wouldn't frighten the ghost more, then giving them a gentle smile.

Their tears lessened and she hid a sigh of relief. She decided to tell them a little joke to cheer them up more and blurted out the first one that came to her mind. "What's a ghost's favorite food?"

"I don't know, what?" they asked, sniffling.

She smiled. "Boo-berry pie!" It was a dumb joke and she hoped three seconds later that it wasn't offensive, but thankfully it cheered the adorable ghost up, making them let out a little laugh.

"H-Hey, I want to show you something."they said shyly. They sent their tears upwards, forming a top hat on their head. "I-I call it Dapper Blook. Do you like it?"

Frisk let out a giggle. It was cute and dorky. They started to look worried, so she clapped her hands. "That's awesome!" she cheered.

"Thanks. My name's Napstablook, by the way." they said, looking down at the ground.

"I'm..." she started but they kept speaking.

"I usually come to the ruins because there's nobody around, but today I met somebody nice! O-Oh, I'm rambling again. I'll get out of your way."

"You don't have to..." she started to say but they had already vanished.

Frisk sighed and continued on. Taking a wrong turn, she hit a dead end, a small room with two spider webs. "Oops, nothing here but spider webs...man, this place is a maze." She was about to turn and try another way, when she saw a little sign. "Spider Bake Sale?" she read in confusion, then rubbed her eyes to make sure she read that right, though she didn't know why she was even surprised after everything else she saw today. "Huh. That's...different."

"Hi!" a tiny voice said. It sounded like a little boy around Tina's age, maybe a little older.

Frisk jumped and looked around in confusion. "Hello?"

"Down here." the little voice giggled and Frisk followed the sound, looking into the smallest web to see a brown spider the size of a tarantula waving a foreleg at her. He was wearing an adorable little blue shirt and black pants that covered all eight legs.

"Oh, hi there!" Frisk said with a smile, though she felt like she had wandered into the plot of Charlotte's Web.

"Wanna buy a doughnut? Mommy let me bake them all by myself and she let me come here today and sell them with the others!" he told her happily and looked up at her with puppy dog eyes...all eight of them.

Even on a spider, Frisk was a sucker little kid puppy dog eyes. "Sure, I'll buy one. How much?"

He was bouncing eagerly at making his first sell. "Umm...seven G."

Frisk counted out seven of the little gold pieces she had, guessing that was what he meant. "Here you go!"

"Yay!" he said happily and he, along with some other spiders, brought her down a doughnut. Frisk thanked them and gently placed the doughnut in her backpack before heading on her way again.

It took her a while to solve another puzzle which involved dropping down through a hole and finding a switch(which took five rooms for her to find), but she did get to run into Napstablook again, who had fallen down a hole and gotten stuck, forgetting that ghosts could fly before finally remembering that little fact and vanishing again. She then had to solve two switch puzzles, which took her a little while and a few wrong switches to figure out,, and deal with more monsters which were now deciding to come in pairs, which added more bruises to her collection. She was limping again by the time she got out of there. Maybe wandering around hadn't been such a smart idea...

Eventually, she reached a room with a large tree and saw Toriel. "Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would." Toriel muttered to herself and started to dial before looking up to see Frisk standing there, looking like a kid who got their hand caught in the cookie jar. She ran over to her. "What are you doing here, my child? Are you hurt?" She checked her over and saw the new bruises. "There, there. I will heal you. You shouldn't have been wandering about alone." she scolded gently, then sighed. "And I shouldn't have left you alone for so long either. It was irresponsible of me, but I wanted to surprise you. Err...well, I suppose I can't hide it any longer. Come, my child!" She led Frisk into her cozy home and a sweet, delicious smell filled Frisk's nostrils as soon as she got in the door. "Do you smell that? Surprise! It is a butterscotch cinnamon pie. I thought we might celebrate your arrival."

"You-You did this for me?" Frisk asked very softly. Her mom had never baked her a pie or treated her bumps and bruises or even seemed to care. How was a total stranger acting more like a mother to her than her own mother? She looked up into Toriel's eyes, her own guarded yet vulnerable at the same time. but saw that Toriel's were open and honest.

Toriel was caught by her expression, so identical to that of Chara's when Asriel had brought her in; the gratitude for even the tiniest kindness, the fear in her eyes that it would all disappear or something, and the very slight suspicion that it was all a trap. "Of course. Let's get some dinner in you first and then you can have a nice big slice of that pie." She gave Frisk a big plate of food and the thirteen year old thanked her and ate, politely enough, but pretty quickly as well, like she hadn't had a decent meal in a while, which made Toriel worry more.

"I have another surprise for you." she told Frisk once the girl had finished eating. She led her towards a bedroom. "A room of your own! I hope you like it."

Frisk gulped inaudibly. "T-Thank you, but-but I can't stay...I need to go home...my..."

Toriel flinched a little, but tried to keep it from the girl she had taken in. "Right now, you can't go anywhere on that ankle. You'll just make it worse, even with that bandage on. Please, stay here." she told her quickly.

Frisk wanted to go back to her sister, but she knew Toriel was right and thought Toriel only meant for her to stay the night. There was no way she could get down the mountain and back to town with her ankle, and it was very late already. She nodded and took out some gold, holding it out to Toriel. "Thank you. I can pay you for the stay..."

"No, no dear. You keep that." Toriel told her, gently pushing her hand back. Frisk wanted to protest but Toriel gently shushed her.

As Frisk went towards the bedroom, she caught sight of one of the mirrors in the hall and thought she heard whispering coming from them and felt a faint tug at her very soul. Confused, she wandered over. Two of the mirrors simply showed her reflection, but the third came as a shock. There was a brown haired girl, looking around her age, maybe a few years older, in what looked like a yellow and green jumper. **"It's me, Chara."** she thought she heard the girl whisper pleadingly and Frisk fell back in shock with a small yelp, landing on her butt.

Toriel rushed over. "What's wrong? Are you all right?"

"The-The mirror...I thought I saw..." she stammered and got up, looking in the mirror again. But the only thing she saw in it was herself. "I-I don't know. Did-Did you see or hear anything?" Toriel just looked confused and shook her head. "Maybe-Maybe I'm just seeing things..."

"You must be tired. Let's get you to bed." Toriel said in a motherly tone, helping Frisk to the bedroom. Frisk thanked her again for the millionth time that night as she lay down. Toriel tucked her in and kissed her forehead before leaving the room. Frisk closed her eyes, feeling a confusing mixture of contented at being cared for for the first time in her life, worried for her sister's safety, and confused about what had happened with the mirror. But exhaustion took over and she was soon asleep.

In the other room, Toriel could not fall asleep so easily. She hoped she could convince this child to stay. She would NOT lose another one to her ex husband's plans, especially this one, so small, so thin, and looking so much like... Her heart ached and she got up to go read. She had the feeling she would not be sleeping much tonight.

Entering the main room, she saw the rest of her pie still sitting on the dining room table and cut a piece, plating it and carrying it to her charge's room, entering quietly so she wouldn't wake her. She placed the slice of pie on the floor. That way, she can have a little snack if she gets hungry in the middle of the night. And if her story is anything like Chara's, which I fear it is, having food around wherever she is should comfort her. She watched over the sleeping child for a few minutes, then quietly headed back down the hall.

...

Frisk awoke the next morning, sleepily thinking the events of yesterday had been a dream. But when she opened her eyes, she realized she was on a nice, soft bed in a beautiful little room rather than her own dingy one with its moth-eaten mattress. She got up and found the piece of pie, thankfully right before she was about to step on it. She carefully picked it up and covered it, placing it in her worn backpack. It would make a good breakfast for her sister.

She wandered down the hallway, checking the mirrors to see if she could see the mysterious figure again, but she didn't. Entering the living room, she saw Toriel sitting in a chair, reading a book. "Up already, I see." Toriel said, smiling. She then looked to Frisk earnestly. "Oh, I want you to know how glad I am to have someone here. There are so many old books I want to share. I want to show you my favorite bug hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education. This may come to you as a surprise, but I have always wanted to be a teacher. Actually, it may not be all that surprising to you." she said, kind of quickly.

Frisk looked down. "T-Toriel, I can't stay. I-I have to go home...my s..."

Toriel looked down as well. "This is your home now." she said softly before Frisk could finish. The thirteen year old flinched back at this, making Toriel's heart clench.

"Let me go!" Frisk begged. "I have to go home!" She then tried to bolt towards the only door she hadn't been near, but Toriel gently caught her. Frisk cried out and struggled, but Toriel didn't let her go.

"Please...stop struggling and just listen for a moment. I will never hurt you. You have nothing to be afraid of here in the ruins, but there's a reason you have to stay." Toriel told her, still speaking softly and gently, though there were tears in her own eyes now. Frisk stopped struggling, but she still looked at Toriel with some fear in her eyes. "You don't understand. I'm only trying to protect you. It's very dangerous out in the underground. It's not nearly as easy to leave here as you think. You don't know the history of what happened between our kind and yours. A long, long time ago, there was a war between our races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They used a spell to seal us here in the Underground. There is a magical barrier between our world and yours. And while it's easy to fall into it, it's not so easy to get back out again. And the monsters here; some resent or fear humans greatly."

Frisk opened her mouth to speak, but Toriel cut her off. "I know that none of this is your fault. This happened long before your time, but there is still fear here. I believe most will calm if you show them kindness...but-but there are some that will want to take your soul." Frisk shivered at this and Toriel felt terrible, but she knew she had to tell her to get her to stay. "You see, a human soul has much more power inside it than a monster soul, even able to linger after death. And-And it's said if they were to gather seven souls and use their power, the barrier could be broken and set us free. And that's why you have to stay here with me." She then let Frisk go before getting up.

"I'm going to destroy the entrance to the ruins, that way no one can get in or out." Toriel then headed towards the exit. Frisk's eyes widened as she chased after her down the stairs and through the long purple hallway.

"Toriel, I know it's dangerous; I know you're trying to protect me, but I have go home! My..." Frisk started, but Toriel cut her off again.

"I'm not letting you out of here! Every human that has fallen down here has met the same fate! I have seen it again and again! They come. They leave. They die. You naive child; if you leave the ruins...they...Asgore... will kill you! I am only trying to protect you! Why don't you understand?!" She looked down. "Go-Go to your room."

"I-I can't. Toriel, I have to go!" Frisk begged.

"Don't try to stop me from doing this. Child...I know whatever happened to you at home wasn't good. You're much too thin. I know you weren't being taken care of at the very least. Stay with me. I will take care of you and raise you as my own child. I will not let anyone harm you. Please...just stay. I will not lose another child!" She walked to the door of the ruins and Frisk ran after her.

"So you wish to leave that badly. Hmph." Toriel said. "You are just like the others. There is only one solution for this. Prove yourself to me. Prove that you have what it takes to survive!" She took a battle stance.

"I'm not going to fight you, Mom!" Frisk yelled and both her and Toriel's eyes widened at what she had just blurted out in her agitation and sadness. "I'm not going to hurt you! But-But I still have to go! I have a little sister at home! She's only six. I need to go home and take care of her. My...My parents won't. I-I don't want to do this...but...but I have to. My sister needs me, and I'm going home to her." She looked down. "You've been amazing to me. You-You've been more like a mom than my real mom, but...but I still have to go back. I'm not leaving my sister alone." She looked into Toriel's eyes. "Please...let me go."

Toriel looked down. "I..." She let out a sad laugh. "How pathetic. I...I can't even protect a single child. But...But I understand why, little one. I know that you love her a lot. Your determination to go back to her is strong. I-I cannot stop you. I'll do whatever I can to help you, but-but I won't be able to protect you all the time out there."

"I-I know. And I know it's extremely dangerous. But I have to do this anyway." she whispered. "I-I can protect myself out there...I always have..."

"I-I know, my child. But you never should have had to." Toriel enveloped her in a warm hug, crying softly. "Please...please be careful. And if you want to come back, you will always have a home here. And remember, you have my phone number. Call me whenever you need me or even if you just want to talk. I will always have my phone on me and I will always be here."

"Thank you. Thank you so much for everything." Frisk whispered, tears falling from her eyes as well as she hugged Toriel back tightly. After a long moment, Toriel let her go and moved out of her way. Frisk's hand shook as she opened the door to the ruins. She gave one last look back at Toriel before she stepped outside, feeling like her heart was breaking in a million pieces.

...

Toriel watched sadly as Frisk left, hoping she would be all right on the perilious journey ahead. She hoped the friend she had been talking to would keep his promise and protect and help this brave, determined little girl. But what she didn't know was that someone else had silently vowed to help the girl along her way as well. She never felt the ghostly arms that wrapped around her or heard the tiny voice of another young teenage girl whisper "Goodbye," and "I love you, Mom." She never saw the spirit of her first adoptive daughter leave the ruins and follow along behind Frisk as she down the hallway out of the ruins, the young spirit stopping one last time to wave goodbye.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please leave me a comment and let me know how it was!
> 
> I also have a funny little Papyrus/Frisk oneshot up based on the Tumblr prompt "It's so big!"
> 
> Four years after the True Pacifist Ending, Frisk and Papyrus are on their first real date upstairs in Papyrus's room. Sans learns the hard way that it's not good to eavesdrop...
> 
> Please check it out and let me know what you think!


	3. Exit Flowey, Enter Skele-Bros and Chara

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk has just left the ruins. After getting an ominous message from Flowey, she runs into a certain pair of skeleton brothers, but what is with that mysterious voice that keeps following her that no one else seems to hear?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoy! Please comment and let me know what you think!

As soon as Frisk left the doorway leading to the exit and went up another long hallway, she encountered a certain creepy yellow flower again. "Clever. Veeerry clever. You think you're so smart, don't you?! But in this world, it's kill or be killed. So you played by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person. I bet you feel really great. You didn't kill anybody this time. But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer? You'll die and you'll die and you'll die. Until you're tired of trying. What will you do then? Will you kill out of frustration?" he asked her with a taunting smirk.

Frisk was scared, but hid it. "Not sure how. I'd already be dead." she said snarkily as her mouth activated before her brain, trying to make him think she was fearless so he'd leave her alone, only thinking a second later that that was probably a very stupid plan.

He glared at her and she fought the urge to back away. "You're almost as bad as that smiley trashbag, but you're not fooling me with your pointless acts, you know. I can very clearly see the fear in your eyes... You know you'll never make it through without killing or being killed. Now, will you rule this world...or give it up entirely and let ME inherit it." He grinned evilly. "I am the prince of this world's future. But don't worry, my little monarch. My plan isn't regicide. This is SO Much more interesting. Will you kill? Or will you fall? Let's see what you do."

"Look, you psychopathic asshole flower! I will not die, and I will NEVER take a life!" Frisk yelled, angry and scared out of her wits, her mouth still running off before her brain.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily; she wasn't quite sure, the evil flower was more amused than offended by her retorts. He knew exactly how scared she was. Flowey laughed evilly, his face showing a terrifying, jagged demonic grin. "We shall see, little monarch. We shall see." With his last words, he sunk into the ground and vanished.

Frisk was tense, ready for any surprise attack, but none came. Cautiously, she walked forward, opening the last door, half expecting Flowey to be outside it. But he wasn't. Outside was a long road, tall black trees thickly lining each side. Taking a deep breath to ease off the shakes, she walked forward along the creepy pathway, stepping over a heavy branch in her path. For a second, she considered going back to Toriel's warm home and loving hugs, but she berated herself for her selfishness and cowardice. Her sister needed her. She'd have to suck it up and keep going, no matter what the danger. But this path was creepy and...and what was that? She thought she saw a vaguely human shaped shadow following her out of the corner of her eyes. She whipped around, but there was nothing there, yet the thick branch she remembered stepping over was now broken into pieces.

 _Okay, maybe you broke it yourself, Frisk. Now stop this and just keep going, maybe a little quicker. There's probably nothing there, and if there is, you can handle it or at least outrun it, but whatever you do, don't let it know you're afraid._ she berated herself and kept going, very wary in case anything jumped out at her. She still felt like she was being followed and stared at, but every time she turned around, there was nothing there.  She sped up a bit, but tried not to panic.

After a little while of walking and trying to keep ahead of whatever might be following her, she came across a short wooden bridge with wide bars that were forming a really bad gate in front of it. Almost anybody could walk through if they wished. Thinking it was just some weird decoration, she was just about to cross when she heard footsteps behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the shadowy humanoid figure again, but this time it didn't disappear. She froze in place as it crept up to her.

"Human." a male voice said slowly in a deep, gravelly, and somewhat intimidating voice. "Don't you know...how to greet...a new pal?"

Frisk whipped around and quickly backed away as the figure stepped closer, taking a defensive stance or at least an attempt at one with her arms out a little in an attempt to block him. "B-Back off! I know judo!" she cried out, then inwardly berated herself as she prepared to run for her life. _Really, Frisk? Could you have sounded any more like a scared thirteen year old girl that doesn't actually know judo?_

The stranger stepped into the light, revealing himself to be a skeleton, only a few inches taller than her.  His skull was large and rounded, he had a grin on his face, and he wore a casual blue hoodie with black shorts. Frisk could have sworn one of his eyes glowed blue for a second, but then it disappeared, and he spoke in a much more easygoing tone, raising both hands to show he wasn't armed. "Hey, hey, easy. I'm not gonna hurt ya." He held out his hand for a handshake, and after an awkward few seconds, Frisk managed to get herself to relax enough to take it.

*Ppppbbtttt*

"Heheh, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. It's ALWAYS funny." he chuckled. Frisk laughed a little too and felt herself relax even more as this guy now seemed more like an immature teenage boy than an ax murderer or a creepy stalker.  Especially as he was carrying a whoopie cushion in his hand and was wearing pink slippers. She thought she heard someone else faintly giggle as well and looked around, but saw no one.

"Anyways, Jumpy, you're human, right?' the skeleton asked and Frisk turned her attention back onto him. "That's hiliarious. I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton."

"I'm..." Frisk started to introduce herself, but Sans cut her off.

"I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now..." he told her Frisk gave him a nervous look, preparing to run for it, but Sans just continued talking. "But y'know... I don't really care about capturing anybody." he added in a lazy tone. "Now, my brother, Papyrus, he's a human hunting FANATIC. Hey, actually, I think that's him over there. I have an idea. Go on through this gate thing. Yeah, go on right through. My bro made the bars too wide to stop anyone."

Frisk was hesitant, but Sans gave her a gentle nudge, and she stepped through, not really seeing any other options as he was walking right behind her. They crossed the bridge onto a road beside what looked like a snow covered wooden sentry booth. She then heard footsteps coming towards her. "Quick, behind that conveniently shaped lamp." Sans told her, pointing to a random, vaguely human shaped lamp in the middle of the road. Without time to wonder why the hell a lamp shaped like a human was there, she stepped behind it, just in time as loud footsteps sounded and another skeleton came walking up.

And this guy was intimidatingly tall, over six feet at the least.  His face was sharp, long and angled with prominent cheekbones, and he was wearing a ragged red scarf like it was a cape, a pair of red gloves, a white shirt with some sort of red and blue symbol on it, blue shorts, and red boots.  As the new skeleton stomped up to his brother, Frisk noticed that he looked mad, or at least annoyed, and she held her breath, scared for her life.

 " 'Sup, bro?" Sans asked casually.

"YOU KNOW WHAT'S 'SUP, BROTHER! IT'S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU HAVEN'T. RE-CALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES! YOU JUST HANG AROUND OUTSIDE YOUR STATION! WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?" Papyrus yelled, throwing his arms in the air and gesturing wildly as he talked.  He had a loud, somewhat high pitched voice and sounded more like an annoyed younger sibling than a homicidal maniac, which made Frisk feel a bit better, though she was still scared.

"Staring at this lamp. It's really cool." Sans said lazily. "Do you wanna look?" Frisk tried to hide as much as she could, fighting the urge to run for it, knowing Papyrus would catch her if she did.

"NO! I DON'T HAVE TIME TO STARE AT THE LAMP YOU KEEP PRANKING ME WITH! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE? I WANT TO BE READY! I NEED TO BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THEN I, THE GREAT PAYPRUS, WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I UTTERLY DESERVE! RESPECT! RECOGNITION! I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE. WILL. ASK. TO. BE. MY. FRIEND! I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING!" Frisk's eyes widened as she heard this last part, and she kind of felt bad for this weird guy and wanted to laugh at the same time. Papyrus didn't feel quite so scary any more, but that didn't mean she wanted to be discovered by him.

"Hmm, maybe this lamp will help you." Sans said casually and Frisk once again held her breath, inwardly cursing Sans for saying that.

"SANS! YOU ARE NOT HELPING! YOU LAZYBONES! ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!" Papyrus yelled.

"Hey, take it easy. I've got a **ton** of work done today. A skele- **Ton."** Sans joked with a wink.

 _ **"Oh, Sans. You haven't changed at all."**_ Frisk heard a female voice say right beside her with a laugh. She held back a gasp as she realized it was the same voice from the mirror. But again when she looked, she saw no one, and the two bantering skeletons hadn't seemed to hear the voice at all as Papyrus yelled at his brother about the dumb joke and Sans casually pointed out that he was smiling.

"I AM AND I HATE IT!" Papyrus yelled before sighing. "WHY DO I HAVE TO DO SO MUCH JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION?" His voice was still pretty loud, but he didn't sound as angry any more.

"Wow. Sounds like you're really working yourself...down to the bone." Sans replied.

"UGH! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES...AND AS FOR YOUR WORK, PUT A LITTLE MORE -BACKBONE- INTO IT! NYEH-HEH-HEH-HEH!" Papyrus then left, turning back to give one last, "HEH!"  

 _ **"Ooh, not a bad comeback. Looks like you got burned, Sans."**_ Frisk thought she heard the same voice say, and again she tried to look for it, but still found nothing.

"Okay, you can come out now...What are you looking for? Lost your head? Don't worry, it's right on your shoulders where you left it." Sans quipped.

"I-I thought I heard...Never mind. I must be...out of my SKULL." Frisk joked weakly, trying to get the strange experience out of her mind.

"Heh. Good one. Be sure to get some rest. You don't want to be BONE-tired if my brother comes back." Frisk thought she heard the voice laugh again at this, but tried to ignore it. "Anyway, you might want to get going. Papyrus might come back, and if he does...you'll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes."

Frisk thanked him for his help, then walked off a little, holding her head. "Okay, first I'm in a world filled with monsters, now I'm hearing voices in my head that even the monsters can't hear...Wow, do I have a headache..." she mumbled to herself. She saw the sentry booth. _Hmm, maybe I can hide behind it and take a rest for a minute. Maybe that will get my head screwed on straight._ She stepped behind it and found a condiments station with ketchup, mustard and relish bottles. "This is so weird...maybe I have lost my marbles..."

 _ **"You'd better find them then."**_ the voice then quipped with a laugh, coming from right behind her. Frisk instinctively turned, expecting to find nothing there again. But she was caught by surprise when she instead saw the girl from the mirror. The girl looked shockingly similar to herself, though she appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen, a little taller than her with brown hair only slightly lighter than Frisk's and a pronounced blush on her cheeks. Frisk felt another tug in her very soul as it seemed to gravitate toward the girl. For a weird second, she felt like she had found family, even though she had no idea who the hell this girl was.

Shock and confusion were quickly replaced by annoyance though. "What's with following me around, then hiding from everyone else and making me think I was off my nut? Is this some kind of weird practical joke?!"

The girl sighed, running a hand through her hair as her expression turned serious. _**"I wish it was. But you're the only one who can actually see and hear me now. I'm dead."**_

"So you're like a ghost or something? Like Napstablook?" Frisk asked, still confused and half thinking she was crazy. "Why am I the only one who can see or hear you?"

 _ **"Sort of, I guess, on the first question. Everyone can see Napstablook and the other ghost monsters. But...I'm different. Maybe it's because I was human. As for why only you and you specifically know I'm here, I have no idea."**_ She sighed softly. _**"I-I woke up or formed into a ghost or whatever it was yesterday, I...I think a little after you ended up here. I tried talking to Toriel, she-well she was my adoptive mom, but she couldn't see or hear me. Until you saw me in the mirror last night, I didn't think anyone could see me.**_ _ **I don't even know how long I've been gone, but it must have been a long time because everything's changed..."**_ She then let out a sad laugh as she glanced in the direction Papyrus had left. " _ **Papyrus** **has gotten a lot taller since I last saw him; he was just a little skeleton begging Sans to teach him that special attack back then..."**_

"You knew Sans and Papyrus?" Frisk asked in surprise.

_**"Yeah, Sans was my best friend. Papyrus is his baby brother, so I got to see him pretty often too."** _

"Is that why you're here with me? Do you want me to talk to them? Or Sans, at least? Tell them you're here?" Frisk asked gently. "And I can call Toriel. I have the cell phone she gave me.."

 _ **"No. I'd rather you not tell them. I-I've been gone a long time. They've probably already grieved and moved on. It'll just get them upset or reopen old wounds."**_ she said sadly, looking away off into the distance before turning back to her. **_"It's you who needs the help more than me. I felt your determination to get back to your sister. I can understand the feeling. So if you can put up with me, I'll go with you on your journey and at least try to help you get out of here. It's definitely better than being alone with no one to talk to. Plus, from what I've heard...things...they've gotten a lot different since...since I...well, died. When I fell, the monsters...they took me in. I-I had a family, but now everything's changed, and I don't know why Mom is hiding out and so scared and worried they'll hurt you, especially my...my... None of this makes any sense! Things aren't supposed to be like this!"_** The ghostly girl took an unneeded breath, trying to calm herself down and managed to at least sort of succeed. ** _"I'd-Well, I'd like to find some answers, and I think traveling with you should help with that. And I've been a lot of places in the Underground and know about a lot of the monsters, so I can help you get around. So what do you say? Want an extra set of eyes and ears and a ghost attached to them?"_** She was joking around again, trying to cheer herself up. It was how she coped with pain.

Frisk thought this over as she looked to the spirit. She was still a little wary and nervous, but something in her very soul was telling her she could trust this girl. "I-I could use all the help I can get." she admitted. She was still very confused by all this, but any help right now was a godsend. "Thank you. I'm Frisk."

_**"I'm Chara."** _

Once Frisk was rested enough, the two girls stepped out from behind the sentry box, just in time to see Sans come back with some greasy bags of what looked like fast food. "Oh, you're still here?" he asked.

"Sorry, w-I'm leaving now." Frisk said sheepishly, having to stop herself from saying "we,' as only she could see Chara.

"Actually, hey, hate to bother ya, but can you do me a favor? I was thinking...My brother's been down lately. He's never seen a human before, and seeing you might just make his day. Frisk looked understandably worried, so Sans quickly added, "Don't worry. He's not dangerous, even if he tries to be. Thanks a million. I'll be up ahead." He pointed one direction, but walked away in the other before Frisk could even answer.

 _ **"Typical Sans."**_ Chara said with a laugh, looking towards where the skeleton had left fondly. **_"And I know he's gonna beat us there. He cheats and warps places...Anyway, let's go!"_** She started to float off, but Frisk hesitated, afraid of being hurt or captured. Chara realized Frisk wasn't following and turned back. **_"It's okay. You can trust Sans. He's a good guy and he always keeps his word. And you saw how much of a goober Papyrus was. He's not dangerous. Look, I wouldn't tell you to do this if I thought you'd get hurt. I know you don't know me or them very well, but please, trust me."_** Frisk looked into Chara's eyes and saw nothing but sincerity. She finally gave a single nod and followed Chara down the path. As they walked, unknown to them, their sister souls, both red, one damaged and nearly empty of all its Determination, one strong and alive, pulsed in unison as they began to connect. The stronger soul looped itself to the damaged one with an invisible thread, trickling tiny amounts of its own Determination into the it, sustaining it, keeping it tethered to the physical plane, and trying to heal it. Neither girl was fully aware of this soul connection, or the surprises it would bring, but as they traveled, talked, and watched out for monsters together, they somehow knew one thing for sure.

They were going to be great friends.


	4. Papyrus, Puzzles, And Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Along with her new ghost companion, Chara, Frisk travels Snowdin, solving puzzles(or at least attempting to) and making new friends. And what effects will happen from a link between two red sister souls?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying this! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

It was very soon that the two encountered a monster, a Snowdrake, a teen comedian. Though his jokes were awful, Frisk humored the monster that wanted a captive audience by laughing while she dodged the attacks meant to keep her attention, though Chara complained unheard about his jokes being worse than Sans's. Thankfully, that satisfied the monster who flew away happy, dropping coins at Frisk's feet. Much to Frisk's relief, that was the only monster roadblock on the way to Papyrus and Sans, and after getting turned around and nearly ending up in a lake, which caused Chara to grumble about Frisk having no sense of direction, they found the right road and came upon Papyrus and Sans. She stopped in front of them hesitantly.

"SO AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE..." the skeleton with no inside voice was saying before Sans tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. Papyrus did several double takes before turning to Sans. "OH MY GOD, SANS, IS THAT A HUMAN?! OR DID YOU PAINT THAT INCONVENIENTLY SHAPED LAMP TO PRANK ME AGAIN? I BET YOU DID! BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL THE GREAT PAPYRUS THIS TIME!" He grinned triumphantly and intending to take the "lamp" back to its spot, went over and picked Frisk up.

"Hey!" she squawked in surprise and wriggled, trying to get down.

Papyrus nearly dropped her in surprise at feeling something that was alive, moving, and definitely not a lamp, but then steadied himself and gently set her down on her feet. "OKAY, SO YOU'RE NOT A LAMP...OH MY GOD." Papyrus whisper yelled to Sans, which of course meant Frisk and Chara could still hear him. "IS THAT ACTUALLY A HUMAN THIS TIME?!"

"Yes." Sans whispered back.

Frisk shuffled her feet awkwardly. "Um, hi, I'm..."

But Papyrus was too excited to hear her. "OH MY GOD! SANS! I FINALLY DID IT! UNDYNE WILL...I'M GONNA...I'LL BE SO POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!"

Frisk wasn't sure whether to laugh or run. Papyrus's over-excitement was kind of cute, but she certainly didn't want to be captured.

Chara however had already lost the battle with laughter. Frisk was thankful only she could hear her. _**"He may have gotten taller, but he hasn't changed one bit. He's just a goofy big kid."**_

Meanwhile, Papyrus was calming down. "AHEM...HUMAN, YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! YOU MAY HAVE BEEN VERY CLEVER TO DISGUISE YOURSELF AS A LAMP..." Frisk gave him a "da fug?!" look while Sans held back a snort and Chara laughed even harder. "...BUT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STILL STOP YOU! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN...THEN..." He scratched his head sheepishly. "I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT. IN ANY CASE, CONTINUE ONLY IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus then walked off.

"Well, that went well. Don't sweat it, kid." Sans had noticed that Frisk was backing away slowly. "I'll keep an eye socket out for you." He then went off as well and Frisk continued on ahead.

After fending off an Ice Cap, well, ignoring the Ice Cap's hat until it got annoyed and left, Frisk and Chara headed down the road, passing a sign that said, "No moving." that was near another sentry station. As they tried to walk past it, a bipedal dog popped its head out. It was mostly white, with the top of its head being black, and it wore a pink tank top with a dog logo as well as tan pants with brown spots. But what really caught Frisk's attention was the two daggers it was holding and she instinctively took a step back, which made it around and glare in her direction. "Is something moving? I can only see something that's moving. And if something WAS moving, for example, a HUMAN, I'll make sure it never moves again!"

 _ **"Stay. Still. Doggo's eyes are bad. He can't see you if you don't move."**_ Chara whispered to Frisk, who held absolutely still as the dog moved one of its daggers towards her, fighting the urge to run as the blade passed by her face. _**"Now pet him. Don't move the rest of your body and move your arm out of his line of sight. It'll confuse him and he'll stop attacking."** Frisk_ obeyed and carefully pet Doggo, who started barking immediately.

"I've been pet! Pat! Pot! Putt!" The Doggo was completely freaking out. "S-Something pet me! S-Something that isn't moving!"

 _Okay, now I feel terrible._ Frisk thought as the Doggo started trembling. But what she didn't know was that the soul link forming between them could enable one to hear their partner's thoughts and feel their feelings if they were strong enough, and she had accidentally projected her thoughts to Chara.

 _ **"It's better he freaks out a little than you get a sword run through you. Don't feel terrible. He'll be fine. And don't talk! He can still hear you."**_ Chara warned, thinking Frisk was speaking aloud as neither of them knew about the soul link, let alone the side effects of a soul link.

 _Um, Chara? I didn't say a word._ Doggo had jumped back into his station, mumbling about needing dog treats for this. so Frisk quickly continued on before he could notice and stop her again.

**_"What are you talking about? You're talking right now to tell me you weren't talking!"_ **

_"I'm not talking. I'm thinking._ _Can you hear this?"_ Frisk thought to her.

 _ **"Yes, I can...Why the heck am I reading your thoughts?!"**_ Chara asked in total shock. _**"This is way too weird!"**_

_"I don't know! I'm not even fully convinced I'm not crazy right now! What the heck is going on?!"_

**_"I don't know! I just asked you!"_ **

_"How am I supposed to know?!"_

**_"I don't know!"_ **

_"O-Okay, let's just calm down...We can figure this out later."_ Frisk took a deep breath. _"Well, there's at least one benefit to all this."_

**_"What?"_ **

_"I can talk to you in public without sounding as crazy as I feel right now."_

**_"You've got a point there. This might even be crazier than the normal craziness in the Underground."_** Chara said with a laugh, calming down a little.

 _"Maybe."_ Frisk said, eyeing a pile of dog treats someone, probably Doggo, had been smoking instead of eating.

The two girls walked in comfortable silence for a minute before Frisk had a question.

_"Hey, Chara, how'd you figure out how to get past that dog thing?"_

**_"That's actually a really funny story."_** Chara told her with a giggle. **_"Sans and I had heard about this cool treasure in a dungeon in Waterfall, but Doggo was guarding it. So we..."_** She launched into a story about how she and Sans had figured out how to get past the Doggo and sneaked into the dungeons, then found out the "treasure" was a bunch of golden, Temmie flake covered dog treats guarded by a bunch of Temmies.

 _ **"So like five of them have bit down on Sans's hood and won't let go, then one decides to jump up and bite his butt! So he starts screaming and running and then..."**_ Chara cut herself off when she saw Sans standing up ahead waiting for them.

"Hey, here's something important to remember." Sans instructed Frisk as she walked up to him. "My brother has a very special attack. If you see a blue attack, don't move and it won't hurt you. Here's an easy way to keep it in mind. Imagine a stop sign. When you see a stop sign, you stop, right? Stop signs are red, so imagine a blue stop sign instead. Simple, right? When fighting, think about blue stop signs."

"Thanks, Sans." Frisk told him before moving along, going around the huge patch of ice to avoid the embarrassing face plant she knew would happen if she tried to slide across. However, this caused her to bump into something coming down from the northern path. "Oops! I'm so sorry! I..." she started to say as she looked up towards the person she bumped into, then gulped when she realized it was a bipedal white dog in armor, carrying a shield and a sharp sword that was almost as tall as the dog. "Oh crap..."

But the dog didn't seem to be interested in hurting her. The very fluffy white dog was wagging its tail excitedly and staring at her hand, wanting to be petted. Cautiously, she lifted her hand, and it got even more excited, panting happily. She lightly petted its neck, and it pounced happily on her, knocking her to the ground.

"Oof!" she groaned, but looked to the dog, who was watching her expectantly, and she couldn't help but smile. "Oh, so you want me to pet you more? Is that what you want?" she asked with a giggle and the dog nodded eagerly, raising its head to meet her hand. She could have sworn its neck grew longer, but decided she was seeing things as she giggled and pet it again. Much to her surprise, its neck got even longer as it barked and wiggled happily.

 _"Um, Chara, is that supposed to happen?"_ Frisk asked.

Chara giggled. _**"Yeah, that always happens when you pet him. Keep going. He loves it."**_

Frisk nodded and kept petting the excited dog. It got overexcited and swung its sword a little too close to her by accident but she managed to dodge it as she kept petting the happy dog. Its neck grew and grew until it towered above Frisk, though she tried to keep petting him anyway.

 _ **"Lesser Dog is too high to reach, but he appreciates the effort."**_ Chara told her, laughing as Lesser Dog then bounded off, excited. _**"Well, it looks like you made his day. Now he's going to go run off and try to build the perfect snow dog again."**_ Frisk gave her a questioning look. **_"Yeah, I don't know either."_** the ghost girl said with a shrug.

Frisk giggled at this. " _Tina would love this guy. She loves puppies and he's just plain adorable."_ she thought, more to herself than Chara, though Chara heard her anyway. Her smile then disappeared as she thought about her sister. _"Is she okay? Does she have enough food? I-I promised her I'd come back as soon as possible and I've almost been gone a whole day! She's probably worried sick and what if..."_

Chara cut her off before she could go down that panicked train of thought. _**"Don't worry, Frisk. We'll get you back to her soon. She'll be fine."**_ the ghost girl reassured her. _**"Look, you're doing everything you possibly can. There's not much more you can do but keep going, and worrying isn't going to help you or her any."**_

Frisk sighed softly and nodded. _"I know, I know. Thanks, Chara."_

After checking the path where Lesser Dog had come from, they came upon a sentient snowman who asked Frisk to take a piece of him so he could see the world. Frisk was a bit weirded out by the request, but acquiesced with Chara's encouragement and got the Snowman Piece. Soon, after getting on the right path, they came upon Papyrus and Sans once again. Sans subtly held out a hand indicating for Frisk to stop before she stepped on the gray, square shaped area standing out from the snow that separated her and the two skeletons while half listening to his brother rant.

"YOU'RE SO LAZY!" Papyrus yelled at Sans. "YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!"

"I think that's called...sleeping." Sans said, amused.

"EXCUSES, EXCUSES!" Papyrus growled before noticing Frisk. "OH HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES! IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES! I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE...QUITE SHOCKING!" FOR YOU SEE, THIS IS THE INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE! WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THIS MAZE, THIS ORB WILL ADMINISTER A HEARTY ZAP! SOUND LIKE FUN?!

"Actually..." Frisk started, but Papyrus just kept going.

"BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL HAVE...IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL, I THINK. OKAY, YOU CAN GO AHEAD NOW!"

Frisk just stood still, trying to figure out how to get across. There was no way to tell where the path was. _"Chara, can you see anything?"_

Chara floated over and inspected the maze. _**"Nope."**_

 _"Okay, this is probably going to hurt...a lot."_ Frisk sighed as she cautiously stepped forwards onto the puzzle, but somehow it gave Papyrus a hearty zap instead.

"SANS, WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Papyrus shouted indignantly.

"I think the human has to hold the orb." Sans pointed out.

"OH. OKAY." Papyrus said and walked the pattern of the maze, obviously knowing it well. Frisk tried to memorize where he was stepping, but it turned out she didn't even need to. Papyrus had left a trail of wet, muddy footprints as he walked across to her, clearly marking the safe path.

"HOLD THIS, PLEASE!" Papyrus requested, handing her the orb and walking back across. "OKAY, YOU CAN TRY NOW." Frisk thought about just subtly dropping the orb so there was no chance of getting shocked, but as Papyrus had left a pretty clear path, she humored him and kept it, following his footprints across. She did regret that decision for a bit when she accidentally brushed against a wall and zapped herself, but she made it across with no real injury besides a bit of wounded pride.

"INCREDIBLE! YOU SLIPPERY SNAIL! YOU SOLVED IT SO EASILY...TOO EASILY! HOWEVER, THE NEXT PUZZLE WILL NOT BE EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY MY BROTHER, SANS! YOU WILL SURELY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM! NYEH HEH HEH!" He then moved towards the next area.

"Hey, thanks. My brother seems like he's having fun. By the way, did you see that weird outfit he's wearing? He made that a few weeks ago for some costume party. He hasn't worn anything else since. He keeps calling it his "battle body." Man, isn't my brother cool?"

 _ **"He's a total dork."**_ Chara muttered, but it was with a fond smile.

"He is. He's funny." Frisk told him, ignoring Chara.

"Yes, he is. He's got some real RIB ticklers. Now you'd better go on. You don't want him to get too far a-HEAD of you." Sans joked and ushered Frisk on with a smile, making Chara laugh.

"Yeah, I'd better get my FEET moving." Frisk joked back as she left.

Chara shook her head. _**"That was terrible."**_

 _"It was the only thing I could think of on the fly!"_ Frisk protested mentally, blushing in embarrassment.

The ghost girl rolled her eyes playfully. _**"Just leave the bad puns to Sans. Or me. Because you suck."**_

...

"SANS! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE?" they heard Papyrus yell as they approached the skele-bros again a few minutes later near another puzzle spot.

"It's right there. On the ground." Sans told him, pointing to a piece of paper. "Trust me. There's no way they can get past this one."

Frisk picked it up and found out that it was a Monster Kids Word Search. She shrugged and walked over to them. "SANS! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" Papyrus growled.

Sans shrugged. "Whoops. I knew I should have used today's crossword instead."

"WHAT?! CROSSWORD?! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION, JUNIOR JUMBLES IS EASILY THE HARDEST!"

"What? Really, dude? That's easy peasy word scramble? That's for baby bones."

"UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMAN! SOLVE THIS DISPUTE! WHICH IS HARDER, JUNIOR JUMBLES OR THE EASY, BORING CROSSWORD?!"

"I'll have to go with the Junior Jumbles." Frisk said after a bit of thought. Sans and Chara gave her a weird look. "What? I suck at unscrambling words." It was true. She always either completely misspelled them or couldn't figure out what word it was.

"HA! HA! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLES SO DIFFICULT! NYEH! HEH!HEH!HEH!" Papyrus crowed, happy she had agreed with his opinion, then wandered off to go check on the next puzzle.

"Thanks for saying Junior Jumbles just to appease my brother. Yesterday he got stumped trying to "solve" the horoscope." Sans said with a shrug, making Frisk and Chara laugh before they headed off again.

As soon as they entered the next area, they found a table with a big plate of spaghetti and a microwave on a stand. A note was on the ground and Frisk picked it up. "Geez, he even writes in all caps." she mumbled as she read it. "Human! Please enjoy this spaghetti. Little do you know, this spaghetti is a trap designed to entice you." She shook her head. "Well, I might not have known if you hadn't written it in your note..." She then kept reading. "You'll be so busy eating that you won't realize you aren't progressing! You have been thoroughly japed by the Great Papyrus...whatever the hell japed means...Nyeh heh heh heh, Papyrus. Well, he made that "trap" completely obvious."

 ** _"And the spaghetti is frozen solid."_** Chara remarked, amused.

Frisk poked at it, then tried to pick it up. "It's so cold, it's stuck to the table. Too bad. I was starting to get hungry. I guess we just go ahead then."

They dealt with a three monster team-up; another Ice Cap and Snowdrake along with some asshole monster named Jerry who insulted both his teammates and Frisk with every word, annoying them until they all ran off in separate directions, leaving Jerry in the dust. Next, Frisk encountered two Dogi, apparently named Dogamy and Dogaressa, according to Chara who had known them before she died. Frisk tried to pet them like she had Doggo and Lesser Dog, but they were freaked out by her scent. Dodging axes, she finally figured out that she needed to roll on the ground to change her scent, and when they sniffed her again, they decided she was a lost puppy and she was finally able to pet Dogamy, then Dogaressa demanded to be petted by "the weird puppy," too.

"Dogs can be petted by other dogs?! A new world has been opened up for us! Thanks, weird puppy!" they told her before leaving. Frisk just shook her head and continued on her way, solving a very simple switch puzzle that involved turning Xs into Os before running into Papyrus again.

"WHAT? HOW DID YOU AVOID MY TRAP? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, IS THERE ANY LEFT FOR ME?" Papyrus asked, his eyes, well, eye sockets, looking pleadingly at her.

"I left all of it for you." Frisk told him, then hoped he wasn't offended.

"REALLY?! WOWIE! YOU RESISTED THE FLAVOR OF MY HOME COOKED PASTA, JUST SO YOU COULD SHARE IT WITH ME?" he asked, excited. "FRET NOT, I MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE YOU ALL THE PASTA YOU COULD EVER WANT? NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" He then walked off once again.

 _ **"Well, prepare for food poisoning."**_ Chara told her.

 _"Hey, it might not be so bad. I mean, if it's not so cold that it's stuck to the table."_ Frisk said, thinking Papyrus's offer was sweet.

Papyrus was waiting for her when she arrived in the next area and told her about Sans's sock collection and how lucky Sans was to have a cool brother like him to take care of him. Not sure what to say to that random statement, Frisk just giggled and nodded. She then stepped forward to see a much more complicated version of the puzzle she had just solved. "HUMAN...HOW DO I SAY THIS? YOU WERE TAKING A LONG TIME TO ARRIVE SO I DECIDED TO IMPROVE THIS PUZZLE...BY ARRANGING THE SNOW TO LOOK LIKE MY FACE."

 _ **"So egotistical."**_ Chara muttered.

"UNFORTUNATELY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND. NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT! AND, AS USUAL, MY LAZY BROTHER IS NOWHERE AROUND. I SUPPOSE WHAT I AM SAYING IS...WORRY NOT, HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SOLVE THIS CONUNDRUM! THEN WE CAN BOTH PROCEED. MEANWHILE, FEEL FREE TO TRY THE PUZZLE YOURSELF! I'LL TRY NOT TO GIVE AWAY THE ANSWER!"

Frisk stepped forward. "Hmm, should I go this way?" She started at the single one in the first row, and proceeded from there, only to make the puzzle reset by stepping on an X she had already stepped on. She then tried to go from the middle row, but made the same mistake. _"Ugh...I suck at this..."_

 _ **"Hmm, maybe if I get an overhead view..."**_ Chara floated overhead to get a better view. _**"Okay...Maybe if you...No, that's wrong. Wait, try going around the puzzle and stepping on one of the X's in the back on the bottom, then step...there? No, there! Okay, I think I got it!"**_ She then walked Frisk through the first few steps of the puzzle until Frisk could figure it out on her own.

 _"Okay, got it."_ Frisk said as she finished the puzzle. _"Thanks, Chara. You're a lifesaver."_

**_"No problem."_ **

"WOW, YOU SOLVED IT! AND YOU DID IT ALL WITHOUT MY HELP...INCREDIBLE! I'M IMPRESSED! YOU MUST CARE ABOUT PUZZLES LIKE I DO! WELL, I'M SURE YOU'LL LOVE THE NEXT PUZZLE THEN. IT MIGHT EVEN BE TOO EASY FOR YOU!" He then gave his signature laugh again and proceeded past the solved puzzle. Frisk followed him and found Sans waiting.

"Wow. You must be really good at puzzles."

"Not really. I had a lot of trouble with it." she admitted honestly.

 _ **"Yeah, she had to get a new perspective to get a-HEAD of her game."**_ Chara joked, then grew sad as she remembered once again that Sans couldn't hear her.

"Eh, don't worry about it. Sometimes puzzles can drive people out of their SKULLS. If you have trouble with one of Pap's puzzles, just ask him. He usually has an off switch hidden somewhere...even though he does forget sometimes. But he'll help ya, especially if you promise to eat spaghetti with him. He's been rather BONE-ly lately."

Sans then walked off and Frisk looked towards Chara, noticing the downcast expression on her face. _"Chara, are you sure you don't want me to tell him you're here? I can tell that you miss him. I'm sure he misses you too."_

**_"I-I know, but don't tell him. Not yet. Knowing I'm around but that he won't be able to see or hear me might just make him sad, or he won't believe it at all and will just get angry at you. It-It's better that he doesn't know."_ **

_"But..."_

**_"Frisk, just drop it for now. Okay? Please?"_** Chara looked at her, pleading and vulnerable.

_"All right. I'm sorry."_

They continued on a set of stairs, and reached a tiny bridge in front of another puzzle with a bunch of square lights that kind of looked like the floor to a dsco. Right now, the lights were turned off and in varying shades of gray. Behind the puzzle stood Sans and Papyrus.

"HEY!" Papyrus called out to them. "IT'S THE HUMAN! YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS PUZZLE! IT WAS MADE BY THE GREAT DOCTOR ALPHYS!" Frisk wondered who the heck that was. "YOU SEE THESE TILES? ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH...THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION! RED TILES ARE IMPASSABLE! YOU CANNOT WALK ON THEM! YELLOW TILES ARE ELECTRIC! THEY WILL ELECTROCUTE YOU!"

 _ **"Aww, really? I never thought electric tiles would electrocute you."**_ Chara muttered with an eye roll. Frisk mentally told her to shush so she could hear.

"GREEN TILES ARE ALARM TILES!" Papyrus continued. "IF YOU STEP ON THEM, YOU WILL HAVE TO FIGHT A MONSTER! ORANGE TILES ARE ORANGE SCENTED. THEY WILL MAKE YOU SMELL DELICIOUS! BLUE TILES ARE WATER TILES. SWIM THROUGH IF YOU LIKE, BUT IF YOU SMELL LIKE ORANGES, THE PIRANHAS WILL BITE YOU. ALSO, IF A BLUE TILE IS NEXT TO A YELLOW TILE, THE WATER WILL ALSO ZAP YOU! PURPLE TILES ARE SLIPPERY! YOU WILL SLIDE TO THE NEXT TILE! HOWEVER, THE SLIPPERY SOAP SMELLS LIKE LEMONS, WHICH PIRANHAS DO NOT LIKE! PURPLE AND BLUE ARE OK! FINALLY, PINK TILES...THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING. STEP ON THEM AS MUCH AS YOU LIKE! HOW WAS THAT? UNDERSTAND?"

"Not really." Frisk said, her head spinning. But Papyrus didn't hear her.

"GREAT! THERE IS ONE LAST THING! THIS PUZZLE IS...ENTIRELY RANDOM! WHEN I PULL THE SWITCH, IT WILL MAKE A PUZZLE THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE! NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW THE SOLUTION! NYEH-HEH HEH HEH! GET READY!"

"I'm gonna die..." Frisk mumbled to herself as Papyrus pulled the switch and the puzzle began flashing in all the various colors, making her dizzy. But when it stopped, it was a simple path of pink tiles with red tiles on either side of it. "Phew..." She crossed the puzzle and Papyrus walked away, muttering in confusion. Frisk noticed the switch was smoking. _No wonder with all that crap that was supposed to be on the puzzle..._

"Actually, that spaghetti from earlier wasn't too bad for my brother. Since he started cooking lessons, he's been improving a lot. If he keeps it up, next year, he might make something edible. Until then, I recommend hiding it when he's not looking or just offering it to him." Sans mentioned with a laugh as she passed him.

After passing a snow sculpture an excited Lesser Dog had made, they came upon the next puzzle, another one with Xs. Frisk failed to solve the puzzle the first time and fell into another snowy area, where she got to see a perfect snow sculpture of Papyrus and a pile of snow that just read Sans.

 _ **"Still as lazy as ever."**_ Chara remarked fondly as she looked at Sans's snow sculpture.

After three tries, Frisk managed to get the X puzzle right without Chara's help and flip the switch, which set up the bridge that led her into the next area, where they saw Sans again, who simply asked, "What's up?" A few steps later, they ran into him again. "Are you following me?" he asked jokingly.

Frisk stammered out something, but Chara just laughed. _**"He's just messin' with you. Remember how I told you he cheats and warps places?"**_

Before Frisk could respond, there was a snort and a deer monster with glowing yellow eyes and a sideways mouth, its horns loaded down with items and tiny trees, charged at her. Frisk barely jumped out of the way in time.

 ** _"Great, idiots were decorating Gyftrot again...They should know it always pisses them off...Look out, Frisk!"_** Chara yelled as the Gyftrot charged at her again, blind anger in its eyes.

Frisk was hit by it and knocked down, but remembered what Chara had said. Maybe if she got the items off, it would calm down. She reached up as it rushed towards her again and grabbed a box from its antlers. It seemed to calm down a little, though it was shaking its head to try to get the rest of the gifts off. She managed to move before she got hit by the thick antlers, grabbing a stocking that contained a small, confused puppy, which she set on the ground safely out of the way. Her lack of attention did get her knocked in the face by another box as the Gyftrot bent down, making her nose bleed, but she ignored it, grabbing the box and removing it, a framed photograph of Snow Drake and his family falling to the ground. The Gyftrot stepped back and shook its head, happy for the weight being lifted.

Frisk tried to remove an ornament from its horns, thinking it was trying to get them off, but it gently nudged her hand and spoke for the first time. "Those are real, buddy. But thanks for getting all that junk off my head. I owe you one." It gave her a nuzzle and dropped some gold at her feet before trotting off happily.

"You okay there, kiddo?" Sans asked, helping her up and giving her a tissue for her bloody nose. "Wow, you sure have a NOSE for trouble."

"Tell me about it." she muttered and thanked him as she took the tissue. After cleaning herself up, she headed off...down the wrong path.

"Are you lost?" Sans asked her, popping in front of her suddenly.

"Possibly." she admitted and went back, where again, Sans was waiting.

"You sure do love to exercise." he teased her, then pointed out the right path.

They then entered a clearing with several piles of snow scattered around it. Frisk started to go right through, but then realized Chara had stopped and was staring at a snow poff. "Hey, Chara, you okay? Something interesting about that snow pile?" she asked aloud, forgetting to talk with her mind. Luckily, no one was there to hear her talking to what looked like nothing. However, Chara didn't seem to hear her either, lost in thought.

...

_"C'mon, Chara! This meeting's boring and Mom and Dad are going to be at it for a while. Let's go play! I can show you this special spot I found!" Asriel pleaded. They were with their mom and dad, who were talking to some other monsters about a new town they were going to be building here._

_Eleven year old Chara hesitated. She was just as bored as he was, but she didn't want to get in trouble either. She had been with the Dreemur family for six months, and they had shown her more kindness than she had ever been showed in her life and had never hurt her, but she still remembered how the adults in her village got when she made them angry..._

_"C'mon, Char, it's okay. We'll be back before they even notice we're gone and it's not that far, just across the bridge." Asriel told her. Finally Chara nodded and Asriel very gently took her hand, knowing that movements that were too sudden would startle her, and led her away across the bridge._

_"Here we are!" Asriel then said proudly, leading her into a wide open clearing with several piles of snow. There was also a little skeleton there who looked to be around three or four, happily building a snowman. Asriel smiled and walked up to the little skeleton while Chara hung back. "Hi! I'm Asriel and this is my sister, Chara."_

_The little skeleton turned from his snowman and gave Asriel a huge smile. "Hi! 'M Papy and dis is my big brudder, S..." He had turned to motion to his side, then realized there was no one there. "Sans? Sans?!" He looked around frantically. "Where are you?!" Tears started to appear in his eye sockets._

_Asriel placed a gentle hand on the skeleton's shoulder. "Don't worry, little guy. We'll help you find your brother, right, Chara?" he said and Chara nodded. Papy gave him a grateful look and Asriel started to take a step when the snow poff closest to them started moving and something suddenly exploded out of it._

_"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Asriel and Papy screamed at the top of their lungs as they grabbed onto each other in fear and Chara acted on instinct, jumping in front of her adoptive brother and the little kid protectively, about to take a swing at whatever was about to attack them._

_"Whoa! Easy!" a preteen male voice said and Chara realized the person who had jumped out at them was another skeleton, this one around Chara's age and wearing a blue coat. "Sorry. I was just trying to pull a little prank on Pap. Didn't mean to scare you guys that bad." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, then held out a hand to Chara. "Hi, I'm Sans. Sans the Skeleton. It's ICE to meet you."_

_Chara gave him a dirty look for scaring Asriel and Pap, but the corners of her mouth twitched upwards at the pun. She shared her adoptive mother's love of bad jokes and puns. And he HAD said sorry... So she took his hand and shook it. "I'm Chara."_

_Asriel and Papyrus had calmed down quickly and Asriel introduced himself, though Pap was pouting._

_Sans sighed with a smile. "Sorry, bro. Guess I was a real BONEHEAD. I probably deserve a COLD reception."_

_"SNOW kidding." Chara then said with a smirk and Papyrus groaned at them both using terrible puns._

_"Heh, ICE one." Sans told her, laughing._

_"Hey, you already used that one. It's not OREGANO." Chara countered, grinning._

_"Oh, so you want to have a pun war? Well, watch out. I'm good. You'll have a bad THYME." Sans said with a smirk._

_Papyrus groaned again and Asriel rolled his eyes. "Want some help with your snowman?" the goat prince asked Papyrus as Sans and Chara continued to exchange puns._

_..._

Chara snapped out of her thoughts and turned to Frisk, who had called her name again. _**"Sorry, what was that?"**_

"Whoa...that was weird." Frisk said, rubbing her head as the flashes of a memory that wasn't hers passed. Chara had been unintentionally projecting bits and pieces of the memory of her first meeting with Sans to Frisk, and it was definitely disorienting, seeing the scenery change around her and getting flashes of people that weren't there. _"You okay?"_

 ** _"Yeah, just got lost in thought for a sec there. This place brings back memories."_** Chara said. _**"Let's just keep going."**_

Frisk nodded and walked next to Chara, not sure whether to tell her that she had just seen part of her memories. Being able to project thoughts was one thing, but seeing someone else's memories felt like a breach of privacy. She was about to discuss it with Chara when the head of a white, fluffy dog and a wagging tail suddenly popped out of the snow poff in front of them, making them both jump, then relax when they realized it was just a dog. "Hey, puppy!" Frisk called with a smile and the rest of the snow poff went flying, revealing the dog was huge, carrying a spear, and wearing a suit of armor that was about a foot taller than Frisk was. Frisk's smile immediately dropped as she backed away. "T-That's a big puppy..." She backed away and it inched closer, then barked happily, but the bark was loud enough to hurt her ears.

 _ **"Pet it."**_ Chara advised. Frisk petted and it wagged its tail, then knocked her down and fell asleep in her lap...for about two seconds. Then it jumped up and all over her, excited and wanting to play. Frisk yelped as it accidentally scratched her arms and legs with both its claws and the spear it was holding, but she made a snowball and threw it. The dog happily ran after it, then brought back all the snow in the area and dumped it on her, covering her up to her neck. The dog then knocked her down again by accident and rested its head in her lap.

"So cold..." Frisk groaned as she was mostly buried in the snow, but petted it, making it sink its entire weight on her lap. It was still wiggling though and she had to dodge its spear, which was hard since it had her pinned. But she managed to keep calm and pet it again. It rolled over and flopped on its back happily. It then jumped out of its armor, noticed she was buried in the snow, dug her out, licked her face, and jumped upside down in its suit of armor again with its butt and fluffy tail sticking out before walking off(somehow.)

Frisk got up shakily. "C-C-Cold...S-S-So c-c-cold." she mumbled, shivering violently. It was already cold out here and her clothes being soaked and covered in snow made her body temperature drop lower.

Chara had been laughing at the dog's antics, but when she looked at Frisk, she grew worried. Frisk's lips and fingertips were starting to turn blue. _**"Hang in there, Frisk. We're almost to Snowdin. Just keep moving."**_ she told her, not knowing what else to do. She couldn't carry Frisk back if she collapsed, nor could she run for help as only Frisk could see her.

Frisk managed to get to the long bridge and started to make her way across it, her shivering getting worse. When she was three quarters of the way across, she saw Sans and Papyrus on the other side.

"HUMAN!" Papyrus called. "THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE! BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLETS OF DEADLY TERROR!" Spears pointed above and below, along with a mace overhead and a fire cannon below. For some reason, a small, fluffy dog was hanging above her head too, wagging its tail. "WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT WILL FULLY ACTIVATE! CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES WILL SWING! BLADES WILL SLICE! EACH PART WILL SWING VIOLENTLY UP AND DOWN! ONLY THE TINIEST CHANCE OF VICTORY WILL REMAIN! BECAUSE! I! AM! ABOUT TO! DO! IT!" He didn't sound so sure about it though.

Still shivering violently, Frisk looked at the weapons, thinking hazily, _I'm about to die..._ Instinctively, she tried to move backwards, but her freezing legs, trembling with both cold and fear, gave out on her and she fell onto the bridge.

"HUMAN?!" Papyrus gasped in horror and worry, noticing how bad of a shape she was in. He deactivated the trap and ran down the bridge, picking her up. "HUMAN, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?!" Frisk mumbled something vaguely like, "I'm fine," but Papyrus wasn't convinced as he could feel how cold she was and how much she was shaking. He wrapped her up in his scarf. "FORGET THIS PUZZLE! IT'S TOO DANGER... EASY! THE PUZZLE IS TOO EASY TO DEFEAT THE HUMAN WITH! I SHALL TAKE THE HUMAN BACK TO SNOWDIN INN SO THEY CAN GET WARM AND THEN MAKE A SAFER, I MEAN HARDER, PUZZLE TO THAT WILL SURELY STUMP THEM! THEY'LL HAVE TO BE AT THEIR FULL STRENGTH FOR IT!" he called back to Sans, cradling Frisk in his arms as he carried her back across the bridge.

Sans was smiling as Papyrus came back across. He knew Papyrus wouldn't have gone through with that trap anyway. His brother didn't have a mean BONE in his body.

"WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT? THIS IS A DECISIVE VICTORY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS!" Papyrus told Sans.

"I know, bro. I know." Sans told him.

This satisfied Papyrus and he looked down at Frisk, very concerned, his true sweet nature showing through. "HANG IN THERE, HUMAN. YOU'RE GONNA BE OKAY, I PROMISE." Papyrus told Frisk gently, carrying her into town.

"T-T-Thanks, P-P-Papyrus." Frisk said, cuddling as close as she could, trying to get warm. Chara was floating close, worried.

"NO PROBLEM! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS THERE TO HELP!" He moved quicker to get her out of the cold, almost running into Snowdin Inn and explained the situation to the innkeeper as he set her down gently.

"Don't worry, we'll get them a room with a fireplace." the innkeeper told her and got her a room key. Frisk thanked her and then Papyrus again already feeling better now that she was out of the cold, though she was still shivering pretty hard. Papyrus made sure she got safely up the stairs and to her room before he returned to his shift. Once safely in her room, Frisk locked the door and after getting out of her wet clothes, not even caring that Chara was there, she threw them in front of the fireplace to dry and buried her shivering body under every blanket in the room, falling asleep almost immediately.

Hours later, she awoke again, toasty warm and feeling a lot better. Chara was waiting beside the bed. _**"You were out for a while. You had both me and Papyrus pretty worried. You okay?"**_ the ghost girl asked, looking at her in concern.

 _"I'm fine now."_ Frisk reassured her as she got up, wrapped herself in a blanket, and grabbed her now dry clothes.

Chara sighed with relief, glad her friend was okay. _**"Good. Try not to do that again, okay?"**_

 _"No promises, but I'll do my best."_ Frisk replied before going into the shower room and getting dressed. She then headed downstairs to pay the innkeeper for her stay.

"Thank you. And come back again at any time." the innkeeper told her. "Oh, and that tall, excitable skeleton brought in something for you half an hour ago." the innkeeper told her, handing her a covered dish.

Frisk thanked her and found a place to sit, unwrapping it to find a plate of spaghetti that was thankfully hot instead of frozen solid.

"Aww...he did this for me?" Frisk asked aloud in awe, a smile appearing on her face. She read the note. "I, Master Chef Papyrus, have made you some of my world famous spaghetti. You'd better have gotten well! You will need all your strength to deal with my next challenge! Nyeh heh heh heh! -Papyrus." This made her smile even more. "That's so sweet." She took a bite of the spaghetti and immediately gagged.

 _ **"Sans did try to warn you."**_ Chara told her, laughing as she watched Frisk try to choke down the rest of the meal.

"Oh, shut up." Frisk mumbled playfully.


	5. Battles With Papyrus!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Frisk to have her battle with Papyrus. But how will a thirteen year old girl who's inexperienced in combat do against the first Boss Monster she's actually had to dodge attacks from? With the help of friends, training, and a little bit of(unintentional) flirting of course!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! I hope you enjoy this chapter! And please, review and let me know what you think! I love to hear from my readers!
> 
> I do want to warn you that drug use and child neglect is mentioned briefly this chapter.
> 
> I'd like to credit the TheArchimage for their explanation on the blue soul ability, which I used this chapter with permission. They wrote a lovely story of their own with a good Chara called How To Save A Soul. It's an absolutely amazing take on Frisk and Chara doing a pacifist journey, and I highly recommend checking it out.

Don't worry, Mo- Toriel." Frisk told Toriel over the cell phone, almost calling her "mom" again. "I'm all right. Two skeletons named Sans and Papyrus helped me to Snowdin."

"Good." Toriel said with a sigh of relief. "I know those two. They're good boys. Stick close to them. They will help you. And sweetheart?"

"Yes?"

"If it makes you happy, I would be glad for you to call me "mom." Toriel told her, knowing Frisk had almost called her that again.

This made Frisk smile softly but also made her heart ache as she knew she wouldn't be able to stay. "Thanks, Mom." She then looked to Chara, worried that this would upset her, but Chara just gave her a reassuring smile, indicating that it was okay.

On the other end of the phone, Toriel smiled at being called Mom again. "Now be careful, my child. Stay safe. Keep me updated on how you are and call me if you need anything, okay?"

"All right. I will, Mom."

After saying goodbye, Frisk hung up the phone and headed out with Chara. After briefly walking around Snowdin and buying an apron that had defensive and healing properties, Frisk managed to find the route she needed to go. It was hard to see through the thick fog, but she managed to see Papyrus's outline in the distance and headed towards him.

"HUMAN. ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS." Papyrus said when he saw her. "FEELINGS LIKE..THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER. THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER'S PUZZLE SOLVING SKILLS. THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL. THESE FEELINGS..THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW! I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT." He struck a pose at this.

 ** _"You're also very egotistical."_** Chara muttered with an eye roll.

"I DON'T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE." Papyrus told her, but he looked away at this as it was a complete lie. "POOR LONELY HUMAN! BUT WORRY NOT! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR..." He then paused, remembering sadly that that wasn't how it was supposed to be. "NO. THIS IS ALL WRONG. I CAN'T BE YOUR FRIEND. YOU ARE A HUMAN...I MUST CAPTURE YOU- HEY, PLEASE...DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT!" he begged, somehow seeing Frisk's sad eyes through the snow. "IT'S NOT PERSONAL...YOU ARE VERY COOL...BUT...BUT...I MUST FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM! POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS! PAPYRUS! THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" He took a battle stance, blocking Frisk's way, and she prepared to defend herself, but didn't attack him.

"SO YOU WON'T FIGHT? THEN PREPARE FOR MY FABLED BLUE ATTACK!" Papyrus cried out. Bones with a ghostly blue glow both popped up from the ground and formed in the sky. Remembering what Sans had said, she froze in place, and the bones passed over her, not harming her at all. Then she felt a tingling and saw a blue glow coming from herself. She felt suddenly heavy as well. "NYEH HEH! YOU'RE BLUE NOW! THAT'S MY ATTACK!" Papyrus gloated.

 _ **"Careful, Frisk. This is the Blue Soul ability. It makes you heavier on the ground, but lighter in the air. You won't be able to move on the ground quickly, so you need to leap into the air to dodge attacks."**_ Chara warned as Papyrus told Frisk she needed to jump at the exact same time.

Frisk was pretty confused, but quickly had to jump as some small bones popped up under her feet then had to go higher as a slightly bigger one poked out of the ground, which wasn't too hard as gravity was slowed on her in midair, giving her plenty of room to clear it. Papyrus then sent some taller bones and Frisk leapt up. She wasn't the best jumper even with the blue soul ability, but managed to grab the top of one bone and use it to vault over the others.

"GOOD JOB, HUMAN. BUT LET'S SEE HOW YOU CAN HANDLE THIS!" Papyrus called and sent some very long bones from both above and below. Frisk managed to jump over the bone below, but another one was coming from above that she didn't see.

 _ **"Frisk! Bone coming from the left!"**_ Chara yelled quickly and Frisk dodged left. But Chara was floating next to Papyrus to get a better view, which meant her left was in the opposite direction as Chara's, making Frisk's dodge send her right towards the bone. Chara quickly tried to correct her mistake. _**"No, not your left! My..."**_ But it was too late and Frisk, though she tried to dodge, the blue soul ability and her own momentum worked against her and she faceplanted right into the bone which was thankfully rounded and blunt and fell to the ground. _**"Oops..."**_ Chara said sheepishly.

Papyrus stopped attacking so Frisk could get up. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, HUMAN? UM, I MEAN, NYEH HEH HEH! YOU CLEARLY CAN'T DEFEAT ME, SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL GIVE UP!"

Frisk stood up, rubbing her head. "I'm fine. And I'm not giving up yet!" She had a sister to get back to, and though she wouldn't admit it, she kind of wanted to impress Papyrus a little.

"OKAY, GOOD! NOW, UM, FACE MY POWER!" Papyrus called and sent out some medium sized bones which she jumped over and a long bone overhead that she just barely managed to duck under. She then managed to vault over some larger bones, but was hit by a blue bone when she couldn't stop her momentum. She was breathing heavily, but managed to jump over the next small bone. She then vaulted over a big bone, but before Chara could yell out a warning, Frisk smacked her head hard into a very long bone dangling from the sky. Dazed and seeing stars, she fell, crashing into a huge pile of moving bones which hit her hard, causing her to cry out in pain. Then they tumbled on top of her and the last thing she heard was both Chara and Papyrus crying out in horror before everything went black.

"...UMAN! HUMAN, ARE YOU OKAY?! SANS! SAAAAANNS! I BROKE THE HUMAN!" Frisk heard Papyrus cry out as she started to come back to consciousness.

Footsteps came running over. "What happened, bro?"

"I WAS BATTLING THE HUMAN AND A BONE HIT THEM ON THE HEAD AND THEY FELL, AND OH MY GOD, ARE THEY DEAD?!" Papyrus was in full on panic mode.

"Papyrus..." Sans started, seeing that Frisk was moving.

However, Papyrus didn't notice this as he was looking at Sans. "OH MY GOD, SANS, I'M A KILLER! I MURDERED THEM! I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" He hugged Frisk tightly and Frisk could hear him crying as she came more to her senses.

"Um, Papyrus..." Sans continued, seeing that Frisk was very much alive and also wincing in pain from being squeezed.

Frisk managed to open her mouth to speak. "Ow.. Pap'rus, 'm fine..." she mumbled, trying to soothe him.

"HUMAN! HUMAN, YOU'RE ALIVE!" Papyrus cheered in relief and hugged her more, then relaxed his grip when he realized it was hurting her more. "I'M SO RELIEVED! ARE YOU OKAY? UM, I MEAN, YOU'RE TOO WEAK! I WAS EASILY ABLE TO CAPTURE YOU! I WILL NOW SEND YOU TO THE CAPTURE ZONE! OR, AS SANS CALLS IT...OUR GARAGE! YOU'RE IN THE DOGHOUSE NOW! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"

Frisk's eyes widened and she weakly tried to struggle free, though her body screamed in pain. She knew Papyrus wouldn't hurt her, but the monsters at the capital...she knew they would not be so merciful. But Papyrus held her so that she couldn't get away, though he was also careful to be extremely gentle with her, knowing she was hurt. Frisk was about to struggle more, but Sans, walking beside them, winked at her. This calmed her down, and she stilled and cooperated.

Papyrus gently carried her back to Snowdin and into his and his brother's house, going through the front door then taking her into the garage through the door in the house. The garage was small and had a dog dish full of dog food, a water bowl...and the door had bars too wide to stop anyone except for maybe Papyrus. Papyrus set her down carefully, then went back into the house.

Frisk got up, wincing in pain, then started to go towards the bars, but then the door opened, so she stopped. It was Papyrus, loaded down with an armful of blankets and pillows, as well as bandages and a vial of medicine. He set the bedding down for her so she'd be comfortable in the garage, then gave her the medicine. "HERE, HUMAN. THIS WILL HEAL YOU." Frisk examined the bottle, which was sealed and hadn't been tampered with, then subtly glanced to Chara, who nodded, so she thanked him gratefully and took it, feeling a tingle as her cuts and bruises healed and her head stopped throbbing.

"FEEL BETTER?" he asked in concern and Frisk nodded.

"GOOD! NOW YOU STAY HERE! I NEED TO GO TO MY POST AND I SHALL TELL UNDYNE I CAPTURED YOU! SHE'LL BE SO PROUD! I'LL FINALLY BE A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" Papyrus cheered, then looked down at her, genuinely worried. "WILL YOU BE ALL RIGHT BY YOURSELF?"

Frisk knew she'd be able to get out once he left, so she just nodded. _He doesn't know, does he? He doesn't know what the others might do to me._ she thought to herself and took a deep breath, about to tell him, but then he said goodbye to her and left.

Frisk waited about fifteen minutes after Papyrus left before going to the bars again. She briefly checked for traps, then stepped outside, Chara following her out.

"He always thinks that if the bars are just wide enough that they stop him if he stands frontways, they're small enough to block out everything. He can be a real BONEhead. But he's still a cool brother." Sans said suddenly. She nearly jumped out of her skin and saw him standing next to the garage, smirking at her. "Don't worry. I'm not about to stop ya. Maybe Undyne will just think he captured a human shaped rock...again. Or that lamp. He does that a lot." he said and winked at her.

Frisk thanked him and walked out to the woods with Chara. "Well, I did pretty crappy. Papyrus is really strong. I'm lucky he's so nice or he could have killed me." she said softly. "I'll have to train before I face him again. I know he won't hurt me on purpose...but the next person I face...I may not be so lucky."

 _ **"I'm sorry I got you mixed up with that one bone. It wasn't RIGHT of me to think that my left was your left when we were facing the opposite direction."**_ Chara joked, but her eyes were apologetic and she looked worried.

Frisk laughed at her friend's joke. " _You and your puns. Don't worry about getting mixed up though;_ _it was an accident. It could have happened to anyone and I should have been more vigilant too."_ Frisk told her.

 _ **"Let's just say we both need work then. We've got this weird connection thing where we can speak with our thoughts, so we should be able to work well as a team together if we get some practice in. Ready to get started?"**_ Chara asked her and Frisk nodded

They set a plan to train for the rest of the day. Frisk started it by getting some wooden boards and jumping over them, piling them higher and higher to improve the height of her jumps, then spreading them further and further apart to help with the length. She then ran through the forest with Chara at her side, Chara guiding her around and through obstacles. There were plenty of tumbles and mistakes with both exercises, but they both slowly grew better as the day progressed, though they still needed some work. They were interrupted by monsters a few times, but this did give them additional practice at dodging live fire as Frisk tried to calm the monsters down.

After dinner that evening, Frisk thought of one last practice before the sun went down; jumping and leaping over the boards under low hanging tree branches in an effort to imitate the bones that would be over her head battling Papyrus and learn how to duck under them while still avoiding the bones that would be below her. She was starting to get the hang of it when...

"Whatcha up to, kiddo?" a sudden voice asked next to her right when she was mid jump. Startled, she instinctively glanced that way, jolting up and forgetting the branch right in front of her.

**Konk!**

After the collision with the branch, Frisk tumbled down onto her pile of boards. "Ow..." She rubbed the bump forming on her forehead and turned towards the voice, seeing a grinning Sans.

Sans held out a hand to help Frisk up. "Careful there, kid. You don't want to get to a-HEAD of yourself." he joked.

"Tell me about it. I'm trying to figure out how to dodge Papyrus's bone attacks, but I still haven't got it down yet." she admitted.

Sans nodded. "My bro is good. Maybe not at building bars that will actually keep people out, but he's mastered his special attacks. He's always got his magic one hundred percent under control no matter what. It's so cool."

 ** _"Ask Sans to help you."_** Chara advised. _**"He's good. Really good. Papyrus always wanted to learn his special attack. Honestly, I've always wished I could learn it myself."**_

Frisk mentally nodded to Chara before turning to Sans. "Sans, I know it's a lot to ask of you and you've helped me so much already, but can...can you help me learn to dodge better? Please, Sans?" Her eyes were pleading, sort of reminding Sans of...

...Flashback start...

_Sans and Chara were playing a game with little Papyrus, tossing a ball back and forth. But Papyrus soon grew bored with that game._

_"Sans, I wanna see your special attack!" the little skeleton pleaded._

_"I showed it to you twice already today, buddy." Sans pointed out._

_"But I wanna see it again! It's so cool! C'mon Sans, pleeease!" Papyrus begged._

_"Just show it to him, Sans. It is really cool. I'd like to see it again too." Chara said. She joined his baby brother in giving him the puppy dog eyes. "Please, Sans?"_

_It didn't take long for Sans to concede. "All right, all right." He started up his new special attack, turning the bones into odd shapes to amuse his brother and best friend. Papyrus clapped his hands and Chara gave him a huge smile, which made her whole face light up. It was rare for her, and Sans loved to see that smile..._

...Flashback end...

"I'm sorry. I know it's a lot to ask for. I didn't mean to..." Frisk was apologizing, having taken his silence as a negative answer.

"Sorry about that kiddo. Got lost in my skull for a bit." Sans told her, rubbing the back of his neck. He thought it over, subtly using his magical eye to scan her soul. It was still clean, with no EXP or LOVE, plus he had seen her show compassion rather than violence to attacking monsters with his own eyes, so he conceded. "Sure, I guess I can teach ya. It'll have to be tomorrow though. I need my ten hours sleep." he said.

She looked to him gratefully, giving him a wide smile that reminded him of Chara and made his heart ache. "Thank you so much, Sans. I really appreciate this."

"Sure, kid. You can buy me dinner for it later or something. Now get some sleep. You don't want to be BONE-tired for my intense battles." he said, joking away the pain, and winked at her before heading off. Frisk practiced more on the boards before before going to Snowdin Inn.

...

Later that night, after Chara had pretty much forced Frisk to take a rest, she was sitting up in her bed, unable to sleep.

 _ **"You're worried about your sister, huh?"**_ Chara asked gently.

_"Yeah, I've been gone almost three days now...what if she doesn't have enough food? What if she gets hurt? I shouldn't have left her alone, but I-I needed to make some money so I could get more food for us, but I left...and she's..."_

**_"Frisk...you're doing everything you possibly can to get back to her. I know this is delaying us, but we have to do this training or you could get really hurt if not worse. You can't go back to her if you're dead."_ **

Frisk sighed softly. _"I know. I can't help but worry though. She's my baby sister."_

 ** _"I understand. I had a little brother myself. His name was Asriel._** _ **He was the one who found me when I fell here, and he, Mom, and Dad took me in. I-I never knew people could be that kind. They gave me something I never had on the surface. Love. A family who actually cared... Heh...maybe that's why we're connected. Two girls...fallen into the Underground, both with red souls, both with bad pasts up on the surface...I heard what Mom said, about what must have happened. I saw how thin you are. I know how grateful you are for even the tiniest scrap of kindness. I know because I was the same way when they found me. Your sister is the only reason you're trying to go back, isn't she? And I understand why. If-If I could have saved Asriel, I would have done anything."**_ She had tears in her eyes.

Frisk tried to place a hand on Chara's shoulder but it simply went through the ghost girl. She wasn't sure how to comfort her and could only say, _"I'm so sorry."_ She wondered what had happened to Chara's brother, but didn't ask, not wanting to hurt Chara more.

Chara answered her unspoken question. ** _"He died trying to help me. But it wasn't monsters that killed him. It was humans."_** she whispered, her fists clenching. _**"They destroy what they fear without thought...without mercy."**_ She gave another sad, hard laugh. **_"Forgive me for this, but I don't think much of most of humanity."_** And that included herself, though she didn't say this out loud.

Frisk was a little unnerved by the anger in this statement, but there was a part of her that understood. The only one there for her on the surface was her sister. She had no friends, no one to turn to for help, and very few people in her village even seemed to care. To her parents, she and Tina didn't mean much of anything. To many of her teachers, she was just a troublemaker who skipped class all the time and slept at her desk if she did attend, had low grades, and had received numerous detentions and even a few suspensions for stealing from the cafeteria or peoples' backpacks as well as getting into a few fights. To most of the rest of the community, she was barely noticed at all, unless she was doing errands for them. There had been people who had been kind to her through the years though, but they were very few and far between, and even then she was afraid to open up about her home life and ask for help, afraid she and her sister would be separated if she let anything slip. _"Being a human, I do want to defend my species...and there are good people out there...but...but I also understand too. There may be danger here, but there's also so many wonderful people, like you, Mom, Sans, Papyrus, Napstablook...and they've all been so kind to me, even when they don't have to or aren't supposed to be. I-I actually felt safe enough to call someone I've only known a few days Mom. I-I never felt like that on the surface. Ever."_

 ** _"I know. And please don't think I hold anything against you, Frisk, or your sister. I wouldn't be helping you if I did. I may not like humanity much, but I like you, Frisk, even if you're terrible at solving puzzles, suck at puns, and you get lost all the freaking time."_** Her laugh was much more genuine now, though the sudden shift in mood was a little jarring. She then became serious again. _**"I like that you've shown compassion to monsters even when attacked and that you've never given up on anything, even when it's hard. You've got a good heart, Frisk."**_

_"You've got a good heart too."_

Chara looked away. **_"I'm glad you think so."_**

_"I'm serious, Chara. I couldn't have gotten this far without you. You've been amazing."_

Chara didn't look at her and just changed the subject. **_"You'd better go to sleep. You'll need it for battling Sans and Papyrus tomorrow."_**

Frisk was concerned for her friend, but let it go, not wanting to push her. She nodded and lay down, and though the worry about her sister hadn't disappeared, she managed a while later to fall asleep. Chara watched over her.

 _ **"I can't make up for what I did, all the mistakes and horrible decisions I made. I can't bring Azzy back. But-But maybe I can do right by you."**_ Chara whispered very softly so that she wouldn't wake her friend. _**"I won't let you down, Frisk."**_

...

On the surface, Tina looked out her window, very worried about Frisk. Her big sister still hadn't returned from wherever she went to. Was she hurt? Was she lost? Would she even come back? What if she didn't? No, she would come back! Frisk had promised she'd come back, and Frisk always kept her promises.

Another loud noise from downstairs startled her and Tina hugged the ragged white stuffed puppy with the big floppy ears that Frisk had gotten for her a long time ago. Mommy and Daddy had come home today, and they had brought food, which was good, but they had also brought a bunch of scary people home, and they were all in the living room, drinking bad smelling stuff, and taking these funny looking pills, which Frisk told her were very bad and for her not to touch ever, and doing a lot of both laughing and yelling. Frisk always had her stay upstairs with her when the grown-ups acted like this and read to her and played games with her. It was always a lot less scary when Frisk was here.

Tina got her old book of fairy tales and wrapped her faded blue blanket around herself, wishing she was wrapped in her sister's warm hugs instead. When the scary people left and Mommy and Daddy calmed down, maybe she could tell them Frisk was gone and maybe, just maybe they'd care for once and help her find her. If they wouldn't and if Frisk hadn't come back once spring break was over, maybe she could tell her teacher once she got back to school. But for tonight, all she could do was wait, and hope Frisk would come home.

...

In the morning, Frisk and Chara were up and training, but it wasn't until midday that Sans came to find them. "You ready, kid?" he asked and Frisk nodded. "Okay, get ready because this is going to be intense." He started by turning her soul blue.

Frisk tensed, prepared for anything, but she was surprised when a tiny bone, moving very slowly, came out of the ground. She hopped over it and waited to see what was going to happen next. But all that came was another tiny bone, which she easily jumped over. And for five minutes, all Sans did was send out tiny, easy to dodge obstacles. Frisk jumped over them and looked to Sans in confusion and a slight bit of frustration. Sans just winked at her and sent out another tiny bone. She prepared to jump over it like she had the others, but suddenly, a huge bone wall appeared where she was about to jump and she crashed into it, landing on the ground.

Sans smirked. "If you want TIBIA champ at dodging, kid, always expect the unexpected. When people got a BONE to pick with you, they're going to try to get your guard down. Don't let them. Stay a-HEAD of your game and keep an eyesocket out for everything." An embarrassed Frisk nodded, making sure to keep that in mind. She felt like a real BONEHEAD. She heard Chara laughing at her and resisted the temptation to stick her tongue out at the ghost girl.

For the next half hour, Sans kept training her. He was very unpredictable, and she had to be on her guard constantly. Her reaction time slowly grew better and it got easier for her to dodge his attacks, but she had the feeling he wasn't using near to his full strength with her. Chara helped at a few points, but left most of it to Frisk.

"All right, time for that meal you promised me." Sans said abruptly, ceasing his attacks after the half hour was up. Frisk wanted to keep going, but she nodded and thanked him again before walking towards Grillby's again. Suddenly, a little bone was in her path and she nearly tripped over it, but caught herself.

Sans just laughed. "Told you not to let your guard down." Frisk blushed in embarrassment and now was incredibly watchful until they got to Grillby's, but it didn't happen again.

...

Of course Sans managed to prank Frisk again at Grillby's, offering her ketchup for her burger, which the cap had been "accidentally" loosened on, causing the entire bottle to be poured onto her meal. Sans just laughed and traded her his burger for hers. Apparently, he REALLY liked ketchup.

"You're not too shabby at dodging, kid. A little more practice and you'll get PASTA Papyrus's attacks." Sans told her through a bite of the ketchup drenched burger. Frisk giggled and unheard, Chara laughed.

"Thanks for training me, Sans." Frisk told him.

"Don't mention it, kid. Plus, you've thanked me about twenty times already." Sans told her. Then he got serious. Deadly serious. "Now listen. Do not make me regret training you. My brother is powerful in his own right, but he'd never hurt you, not on purpose. So don't you EVER hurt him. Because if you do...you will have to deal with me, and you WILL have a bad time." His magical eye was glowing bright blue, giving him a threatening expression and a huge skull that looked like a cross between a goat and a dragon floated behind him, its eyes glowing as well. The room suddenly felt darker and time almost seemed to stop.

Frisk's eyes were wide, both because of how terrifying Sans was at this point and because he actually thought she'd harm his brother, but she forced herself to remain calm though she wanted to scream and run from the skeleton. "Sans, I would NEVER harm Papyrus. Not ever. I'd never hurt any monster here, but especially not Papyrus. He's one of the kindest, sweetest people I've ever met." She was shaking but kept her gaze at Sans steady, showing her sincerity and determination.

Sans studied her for a moment and judged this as the truth it was. "Good." he said, calming down and storing the giant skull somewhere. The room lightened and time seemed to return to normal. No one in Grillby's even seemed to notice how he had acted. "I didn't think you would or I never would have trained you at all, but I had to make sure. Got to take care of the little bro, you know."

"I know. I've got a little sister of my own." she said softly, understanding perfectly why he had reacted that way, even if it had scared the crap out of her and she had almost peed herself.

Sans nodded. "I know you must want to get back home to her. I will keep helping you, but you stay good, you hear?"

"I will." she promised and she meant it.

He patted her back and gave her a real smile. "Good." His meal finished, he then got up and left.

Frisk then glanced to where Chara was sitting by her. _"He's scary when he wants to be. Remind me never to make your boyfriend mad."_ she teased trying to lighten the mood.

Chara didn't even seem to notice. _**"...I've never seen him so scared before."**_

_"I think he was just worried because I'm going to be battling against Papyrus. I'd be worried too if it was Tina."_

**_"I know and he's always been protective of Papyrus, but I've never seen him that worked up before. He's gotten more wary since I died."_ **

_"It's understandable. He lost his friend; it makes sense that he would want to be extra careful that nothing happened to his little brother."_ Frisk said. Chara nodded and looked away sadly. _"Chara, I didn't mean to make you feel upset or guilty. It's not your..."_ But before she could finish talking to Chara, the entire group of dog guards entered and Dogamy and Dogaressa came up to her.

"Hey, it's the weird puppy!" Dogressa said. Frisk subtly sniffed her sleeve; apparently with all the tumbles, she did still smell like a weird puppy.

"C'mon, we want to show the others that dogs can pet other dogs! It'll blow their minds!" Dogamy pulled her sleeve, leading her to the other dogs, distracting her from the subject of Chara's death, much to Chara's relief. She hadn't wanted to talk about it or hear Frisk tell her it wasn't her fault when it truly was...

After talking to, and petting, the entire dog guard and getting a huge lick in the face from Greater Dog, Frisk went out to train some more. She had thought about going to battle Papyrus today, but she and Chara discussed it and Chara convinced her it would be better to train and do it the next morning. _**"You don't want to shortcut on this."**_ Chara had said and Frisk reluctantly agreed. She continued the work with the wooden boards and in the evening, Sans surprised her by showing up again and sending a bone attack under her feet without warning. This time, she was actually able to dodge it though, and Sans trained her for another half hour before he went home and she trained for a while longer before Chara insisted that she rest.

The next day, Frisk awoke early and headed to the route where Papyrus kept his post. She took a deep breath as she saw his silhouette in the snow and walked up, hoping she was ready for what came next.

"THERE YOU ARE! YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD SOMEONE BEFORE YOU ESCAPED! WHEN YOU WENT MISSING, I WAS WORRIED SICK!" Papyrus called out as he ran up to her, giving her a quick glance over to make sure she was okay.

Frisk's cheeks heated up at the genuine caring in his voice. "Sorry. I didn't mean to worry you, Papyrus."

"IT'S ALL RIGHT. AS LONG AS YOU'RE OKAY...I MEAN, I STILL WON'T LET YOU PASS! NOT UNLESS YOU CAN BEAT MY SPECIAL ATTACK! YOU READY FOR THIS?"

Frisk nodded. "I am. And thank you for helping me after I got knocked out and before when I was freezing." She smiled up to him, not realizing she was still blushing a bit. "You're really sweet."

She hadn't exactly meant to flirt, but Papyrus interpreted the compliment and the blush as her flirting with him and he somehow blushed as well, despite not having blood. "W-WHAT? F-FLIRTING? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS!" Frisk turned dark, dark red and Chara was laughing. "W-WELL, I'M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!"

Frisk was so flustered she could barely think straight. "I can make spaghetti!" she blurted out, then covered her mouth at how stupid she sounded. Chara was laughing so hard she was clutching her stomach.

Papyrus's eyes widened. "OH NO! YOU'RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS!" he exclaimed, and Chara was literally rolling in the air laughing. "I GUESS THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU! L-LET'S DATE L-LATER! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU!" With that, he sent out a small attack, and Frisk almost missed it, she was so surprised she had actually been asked out on a date by a boy. She was so red she looked like a tomato.

 _ **"Hey, Frisk; your flirting is supposed to fluster him, not you!"**_ a still laughing Chara called.

 _"I wasn't flirting!"_ she retorted, somehow blushing even more.

Chara gave the same grin Spongebob used when he said, "You like Krabby Patties, don't you, Squidward?" _**"Suuuure you weren't. Now keep on "not flirting." You've definitely got him distracted."**_ She looked at Papyrus, who was musing out loud as he wondered what he was supposed to wear for a date. _**"Just don't get distracted yourself, lover girl."**_

 _"Shut up or I'll tell Sans."_ Frisk mumbled in her head as she dodged another small attack. "Papyrus, I-I think your attacks are really cool." she told the still flustered skeleton truthfully, and he blushed even more(somehow.)

"T-THANK YOU, HUMAN. AND YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN MY REALLY COOL SPECIAL ATTACK YET! THE ONE THAT'S NOT THE BLUE ONE!" He suddenly remembered that he had forgotten about his blue attack. 'OH, YEAH! HUMAN, LET'S SEE HOW YOU HANDLE MY FABLED BLUE ATTACK...AGAIN."

He sent out his blue attack and Frisk held absolutely still as the bones swept over her. Once again, she glowed slightly as her soul turned blue and she jumped over the tiny white bone he sent to surprise her after the blue attack. "That still feels weird." she mumbled.

Papyrus sent out two tiny bones and a medium sized bone as he dabbed some marinara sauce behind his "ear," which made Chara snort. _**"Frisk, you have weird taste in guys."**_

Frisk was about to retort back when she had to jump over several medium and tall bones, almost tripping over the last one. "WHAT? I'M NOT THINKING ABOUT THAT DATE THING!" Papyrus told Frisk when she looked to him while waiting for his next attack.

 _ **"Suuure you're not."**_ Chara retorted with a laugh.

"YEAH, DON'T MAKE ME USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus called as he sent out his next wave of bones. Chara managed to stop laughing long enough to warn Frisk about an overhead bone, which she ducked under. She jumped over several more, then managed to do an embarrassing faceplant on the last one, but got up unhurt. Papyrus, being the sweet skeleton he was, let her get up before sending out his next attack.

"I CAN ALMOST TASTE MY FUTURE POPULARITY!" he yelled as he sent out the next wave once she got on her feet. She did better this time at keeping ahead of it and didn't get hit. All the while, Papyrus kept dabbing weird stuff on his skull. "PAPYRUS, HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD!" This next was the one she had gotten knocked out on the last try, but this time she was ready. She ducked under the overhanging bone that had hit her on the head last time, jumped over another one, and barely managed to vault over the bone pile, though she did stumble a little.

"PAPYRUS, UNPARALLELED SPAGHETTORE!" he called out, and she didn't have time to wonder what that had to do with capturing her as she had to jump and duck at the same time and bumped into the blue bone. She then dodged two swinging bones and just barely managed to keep from landing on her face.

"UNDYNE WILL BE REALLY PROUD OF ME!" he said as he sent out three bone ramps she scrambled over fairly easily. Just then, he also realized he didn't have ears and that he had just covered his skull in a bunch of weird crap, which he wiped off in embarrassment, but continued on. 'THE KING WILL BUILD A HEDGE IN THE SHAPE OF MY SMILE!" Frisk barely dodged over a bunch of bones that crossed one another's paths, tripping twice, but staying on her feet.

'MY BROTHER WILL...WELL, HE WON'T CHANGE VERY MUCH." Papyrus said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Papyrus?" Frisk asked as she pretty much tap danced to get out of the way of a bunch of little bones that constantly changed direction. He looked to her. "Don't tell Sans I told you this, but I've talked to him and I know he's proud of you. And he's right to be."

Papyrus smiled. "I KNOW. AND I'M PROUD OF HIM TOO, EVEN IF HE IS A LAZYBONES. BUT-BUT ONCE I CAPTURE YOU, I'LL HAVE LOTS MORE ADMIRERS...BUT..." He was hesitating, and it was obvious in his attack, which was slower and easier to dodge. "WILL ANYONE LIKE ME AS SINCERELY AS YOU?" Though he seemed to be thinking it over, he sent out more bones, these ones with smaller gaps between the upper and lower bones. Frisk had a lot of trouble with the ones that were moving, and though she managed to get through most, did trip and bump her head, thankfully not hard enough to knock herself out this time.

Papyrus sighed. "SOMEONE LIKE YOU IS REALLY RARE." Still, he sent out another attack and she had to crawl over the bone ramps and did an accidental backflip over the two moving ones. Still determined though, she got to her feet again. Papyrus made sure she was okay before sending out the next attack. "AND DATING WOULD BE KIND OF HARD..." She listened as she held still for the blue bones and jumped over the tiny ones he sent out. '...AFTER YOU'RE CAPTURED AND SENT AWAY." She leapt over two ramps of bones, hoping he would decide to let her go.

"UGH, WHO CARES? GIVE UP!" he called out in frustration, more angry at himself for not wanting to capture her than he was at her. This attack was more aggressive, with the upper bones moving rapidly and she did get a few bumps and bruises from it from it, but got through, though she was breathing heavily.

He noticed this and was slightly worried, but yelled, "GIVE UP OR FACE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" She was able to bypass the attack he sent at her, which was more gentle than the last. "YEAH! VERY SOON, I WILL USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" She jumped over the little bones he sent, having to stay in the air pretty much constantly to get out of their wild path. "NOT VERY LONG AND I WILL USE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!"

 _ **"Will you just freaking use it already then?"**_ Chara complained before warning Frisk about a low hanging bone coming up she was about to jump into,

'THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE BEFORE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus warned and sent out another wave of tiny, quickly moving bones. Frisk was pretty much doing jumping jacks in an effort to get out of the way of them.

'BEHOLD, MY SPECIAL ATTACK!" Papyrus boasted and turned to use it...only to find a dog chewing on his special bone. "WHAT THE HECK?! THAT'S MY SPECIAL ATTACK! HEY, DID YOU HEAR ME, YOU STUPID DOG?! STOP MUNCHING ON THAT BONE!" The white dog just picked it up and ran off into the woods with it, tail wagging. Papyrus raced after it, but managed to run right into a tree face first when the dog took a sharp right turn.

Frisk gasped and ran over, helping him up. "Papyrus, are you okay?!"

He rubbed his head. "OW...YEAH, I'M FINE. BUT MY SPECIAL ATTACK IS GONE, AND I REALLY, REALLY WANTED TO SHOW IT TO YOU." he said sadly, but then brightened. 'I'LL JUST USE MY COOLEST REGULAR ATTACK INSTEAD. GET READY." As soon as she was, he sent out his "regular attack," which seemed to combine everything from all the others, keeping Frisk on her guard and on her toes trying to keep ahead of it without getting knocked out, then nearly tripped over the little dog that had appeared again and was trying to get her and Papyrus to chase it. But then the really cool part appeared, as two sets of bones shaped to read COOL DUDE moved towards her. She jumped over them, then over a cute little bone riding a skateboard.

Next came something a lot more intimidating. A huge wall of bones that would literally be impossible to jump over, even if it wasn't backed by an enormous bone that was bigger than a dinosaur bone. She gulped as it moved rapidly towards her...

 _ **"You can do it, Frisk! You know you like him! Do it for the date!"**_ Chara cheered and Frisk ran towards it, intending to take a flying leap and get over as much of the massive wall as she could before trying to balance on and run across it or something. She knew she would probably fall embarrassingly, but she wasn't going to give up. She took the biggest leap she could...

And found herself gliding through the air and above the wall. _The hell?! I can't fly!_ she thought to herself in shock and then, while trying not scream like a banshee, happened to look down. Then she saw a certain hoodie wearing skeleton hiding behind a rock, blue magic around his hands. He grinned and winked at her and she smiled back. _Of course he'd be here to watch over his brother during the battle. I would have done the same thing if it was Tina. I wonder why he helped me though..._ She felt the blue magic lift her gently over the giant bone and then lightly drop her to the ground.

 ** _"I know people say love gives you wings, but wow."_** Chara said with a laugh.

 _"First, I'm not in love with Papyrus, second, I think you're thinking of Red Bull, and third, that wasn't me, it was Sans."_ Frisk told her mentally.

She laughed again. **_"I know. I'd know his magic anywhere. Also, watch out for that teeny bone moving very slowly."_** Frisk nodded and hopped over it before looking to Papyrus.

He was breathing heavily. "IT'S CLEAR...YOU CAN'T...DEFEAT ME... YEAH! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS! THEREFORE, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU PITY! I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMAN!"

Chara just rolled her eyes, but Frisk just said, "Thanks, Papyrus." Not only did she want to humor Papyrus; she was tired too.

Papyrus had turned away from her. "NYOO HOO HOO! I CAN'T EVEN STOP SOMEONE AS WEAK AS YOU... UNDYNE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME. I'LL NEVER JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD...AND MY FRIEND QUANTITY WILL REMAIN STAGNANT!"

Frisk walked up to him. "I'll be your friend, Papyrus."

"REALLY? YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS?! WITH ME? WELL THEN...NYEH HEH HEH! I GUESS...I CAN MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU." But he was smiling widely, contradicting his falsely reluctant words. "WOWIE! WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD OUR FIRST DATE YET AND I'VE ALREADY MANAGED TO HIT THE FRIEND ZONE!" He was practically bouncing, excited now. "WHO KNEW ALL I HAD TO DO TO MAKE PALS WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM? YOU TAUGHT ME A LOT, HUMAN. I HEREBY GRANT YOU PERMISSION TO PASS THROUGH."

 _ **"I think the lesson here was supposed to be "all you need to do to make friends is be yourself," but close enough."**_ Chara muttered.

He gave her brief directions on how to get to the capital, though they were pretty vague, which confused Frisk. "NOW, I'LL BE AT MY HOUSE, BEING A COOL FRIEND. MEET ME THERE WHEN YOU'RE READY TO HAVE THAT D-DATE." he said, so focused on trying to figure out what the heck you were supposed to do on a date that he forgot something important he was going to tell her. "OH WAIT...I WAS SUPPOSED TO TELL YOU SOMETHING...BUT I FORGOT. WELL, SEE YOU SOON!" He soon left, leaving a blushing Frisk and a laughing Chara.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed a slightly more proactive Sans! A lot of people have been doing fanmade battles for Sans on a Pacifist run, so I decided to try one of my own. Plus, a little taste of Sans' true power as a warning to what will happen if someone messes with his bro!
> 
> Sans helping her on the giant bone wall was based off a comic I saw in one of Hub Cinema's comic compilations.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed! This was both a fun chapter and a hard one to write. Please let me know what you think!
> 
> I'd like to give a big shoutout to Stallionwolf for all his help with this story and all his great ideas! You're awesome, buddy. Also, I'd like to thank IAmUmbreon11 and IAmAnEggplant for all their help and advice as well.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle with Papyrus has been won. Now what follows is....a very awkward first date. Can Frisk's sub-par dating skills win Papyrus's heart? And when Frisk goes to dinner with Sans at Grillby's, what new information will Sans figure out about our heroine?

_**"Frisk and Papyrus, sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G!"**_ Chara teased her blushing friend.

Frisk blushed deeply.  _"S-Shut up, Chara."_

Chara just laughed.  _ **"So are you going on this date or just gonna stand around all day?"**_

Frisk did really want to go on this date and spend some more time with Papyrus, but she also didn't want to keep her sister waiting much longer. "I-I _don't know. We do kind of have to get going...to wherever we're supposed to go to get to the capital so I can get home."_ she said, still confused by Papyrus's bad directions.

 _ **"Frisk, it's okay to stop for an hour and hang out with**_ **Papyrus. I know you want to."**  Chara told her. _**"Plus, it's only eight in the morning if that clock in Snowdin is right. And you're exhausted from the battle, plus, you forgot to eat breakfast...again. And you might want to get some better directions from him while you're at it. I don't know how much has changed since I've been gone."**_ She was sad about this, but forced the thought from her mind.  ** _"And don't forget the biggest reason of all you should go out on a date with him."_**

 _"What?"_ she asked, walking right into another opportunity for Chara to tease her.

 _ **"You liiiiike him."**_ the ghost girl said with a grin, making Frisk turn red as a tomato.

 _"I do not! Well, I mean, I like him, but I don't like him like him!"_ Frisk protested as she turned to go back to Snowdin.

 _ **"Oh, you do, you're allll red."**_ Chara teased her.  _ **"And you seem pretty eager for that date."**_

 _"You told me to go on the date! Plus, he was really nice to me. I-I don't want to stand him up!"_ she told her quickly, her face getting even redder.

Chara just grinned. "Or _ **you liiiike him!"**_

Frisk went so red Chara thought steam was going to come out of her ears. "Do not." she muttered, forgetting to think it.

"Do not what?" an amused voice asked and Frisk turned to see Sans walking up to her.

"N-Nothing!" Frisk said quickly.

Sans just shrugged. "Okay, weirdo. So anyway...I hear you have a BONE-deep admiration for my brother." He grinned at her teasingly.

It shouldn't have been possible for Frisk to get any redder, but somehow she did, burying her face in her hands.  _"Great, now there's two of them."_ she thought, making Chara laugh.

"Welp, I guess it is true." he said, then turned serious. "Look, kid. Papyrus...he's a very cool monster, but a lot of people...they don't see that. He doesn't have a lot of friends, so the ones he does have are very special to him. He's given you his trust. So, whatever you do, whether you're his friend or more, you'd better not hurt him. Got it?"

"Sans, I'd never hurt Papyrus. To be honest, I don't have a lot of friends either." she admitted, and it was true. The only friends she had were Tina, Chara, and now Papyrus. She never really had any friends in school or around her hometown.

Sans's eyes, well, eye sockets, softened a little. "It sounds like you're too cool. Just like Paps. But don't worry. Papyrus is the best friend you can ask for. Just...make sure you're a good friend to him too."

"I will. I promise."

"Good. I'm holding you to that promise, kiddo." Sans then patted her back and walked off.

...

Frisk soon reached Snowdin and took a deep breath, nervous. This was her first date with anyone ever after all. Remembering something, she searched in her bag, finding a ribbon she had absently picked up at the Ruins while doing the switch puzzle. She tied it into her hair in a pretty bow and dusted off her clothes.

 _ **"Getting yourself all pretty for your Prince Charming?"**_ Chara teased her.

Frisk turned bright red and tried to ignore her as she started walking again.

_**"I knew it! You liiiike him!"** _

_"H-Hey, you have no right teasing me! You laugh at everything Sans says whether it's funny or not, you're always talking about him, and I KNOW I caught you checking him out a few times."_ Frisk smirked as Chara's prominent blush grew much, much deeper.  _"I think YOU'RE the one with a crush on a skeleton brother!"_

Chara got much more red.  ** _"Um, I..."_**

_"I knew it! Sans and Chara, sitting in a tree..."_

**_"Shut up, Frisk."_ **

Frisk grinned and was about to tease her more when she spotted Papyrus standing outside.

"SO YOU CAME BACK TO HAVE A DATE WITH ME? YOU MUST REALLY BE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS." Papyrus said when he saw her, kind of surprised that she had actually showed up. "I'LL HAVE TO TAKE YOU SOMEPLACE REALLY SPECIAL...A PLACE I LIKE TO SPEND A LOT OF TIME!" He then led her off, and then after a little bit, suddenly turned around again, leading right back to where they started. "MY HOUSE!"

 _ **"Um, why didn't you just invite us in?"**_ Chara asked. She shook her head.  ** _"I said it before and I'll say it again. Frisk, you have really weird taste in guys."_**

Frisk just subtly rolled her eyes at her friend and followed Papyrus inside. Papyrus's living room was pretty nice, with a couch, a TV, and a coffee table with a rock covered in sprinkles resting on top of it.

"Nice pet rock." Frisk said awkwardly, trying to make conversation.

"IT'S MY BROTHER'S. HE ALWAYS FORGETS TO FEED IT, SO AS USUAL, I HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY." he told her, then fumbled around for something to say as well, then finally thought of something. "HEY, WANT TO SEE MY COOL BONE COLLECTION?" he asked.

"Sure." she replied and he led her into the kitchen to the sink. "IMPRESSED? I INCREASED THE HEIGHT OF MY SINK! NOW I CAN FIT EVEN MORE BONES UNDER IT! TAKE A LOOKSY!" Frisk opened the cabinet only to find the annoying dog from earlier chewing on the last of Papyrus's bones. "WHAT?" Papyrus screeched. "CATCH THAT MEDDLING CANINE!"

Chara was laughing her head off, but Frisk dived for the dog at the same time Papyrus did, but this ended with them colliding and bonking heads, and the dog ran between their legs and out the door, making them tumble to the ground. "OW...CURSES! I REALLY DON'T LIKE THAT DOG...ARE YOU OKAY, HUMAN?"

Sans stuck his head out of his room, grinning and playing a few notes on his trombone.

**Da Da Dum!**

"SANS! QUIT PLAGUING MY LIFE WITH INCIDENTAL MUSIC!" Papyrus yelled as he helped Frisk up. "AND WILL YOU PLEASE PICK UP YOUR SOCK?! WE HAVE A GUEST!"

"Ok." Sans called back and then closed his door.

"UGH! THAT SOCK IS NEVER GOING TO GET PICKED UP." Papyrus muttered.

"Ok." Sans said, poking his head out of the door again when he heard this.

"NO, SANS, THAT'S NOT WHAT I...UGH, NEVER MIND!" Papyrus said, throwing up his hands. Frisk tried not to laugh, though Chara hadn't stopped and was clutching her sides.

 _ **"This is too good! Why didn't anyone bring a video camera?"**_ the ghost girl said through her laughter. Frisk was glad Papyrus couldn't hear her.

Papyrus grumbled a minute before turning to Frisk again. He rubbed the back of his neck shyly, hoping the human couldn't tell he had absolutely no clue what he was doing. "IF YOU'VE FINISHED LOOKING AROUND, WE COULD GO TO MY ROOM AND DO...WHATEVER PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY DATE?"

Normally, this would be a cause for concern for Frisk. But when she looked at Papyrus, she saw his innocent expression and realized he didn't mean anything dirty, so she nodded. "S-Sure."

He brought her upstairs to his room, and it was absolutely awesome. He had a racecar bed, a bunch of action figures, a computer, a bookshelf, and a cool pirate poster.

"SO, UM, SHALL WE START THE DATE?" Papyrus asked nervously.

 _ **"I thought the date had already started..."**_ Chara muttered.

"Y-Yeah." Frisk replied, just as nervous as he was, hoping that he couldn't tell that she had no clue what she was doing.

"OKAY! DATING START! UM, HERE WE ARE...ON OUR DATE." Papyrus shuffled his feet. "I'VE NEVER ACTUALLY DONE THIS BEFORE..."

"I haven't either." Frisk admitted, and this made Papyrus relax a little, glad he wasn't alone.

"HEY, IT'S OKAY, HUMAN! WE'LL FIGURE IT OUT! I GRABBED AN OFFICIAL DATING RULEBOOK FROM THE LIBRARY ON THE WAY HOME!" He ran to his bookshelf and pulled it out. "YOU CAN'T SPELL "PREPARED" WITHOUT SEVERAL LETTERS FROM MY NAME!" Frisk tried not to laugh as Papyrus examined the rulebook. "OKAY, STEP ONE...ASK THEM ON A DATE!"

 _ **"You already did that after lover girl over here flirted with you."**_ Chara said, making Frisk blush.

But Papyrus either didn't remember this or didn't think it counted. "HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GO ON A DATE WITH YOU!"

 _ **"You're already ON the date with her."**_ Chara pointed out, rolling her eyes.

"I accept." Frisk said, trying not to laugh at Chara's commentary.

"REALLY? WOWIE!" Papyrus said, blushing. "I GUESS THAT MEANS IT'S TIME FOR PART TWO! HMM, STEP TWO...PUT ON NICE CLOTHES TO SHOW YOU CARE!" He then studied Frisk, who felt self conscious in her worn out clothing. "HMM...WEAR CLOTHING...THAT RIBBON...YOU'RE WEARING CLOTHING RIGHT NOW!" he exclaimed and Chara burst out laughing. "NOT ONLY THAT, BUT EARLIER TODAY YOU WERE ALSO WEARING CLOTHING! AND YOU WERE WEARING CLOTHING A FEW DAYS AGO WHEN I MET YOU TOO! NO...COULD IT BE...YOU'VE WANTED TO DATE ME FROM THE VERY BEGINNING?"

"Um...well, it-it was mostly because nudity is frowned upon in most societies, but well, kinda, sure, I guess I..." Frisk stammered.

 _ **"Frisk, you're rambling. Calm down."**_ Chara said through fits of laughter.  _ **"Actually, don't. This is funny."**_

"NO...YOU PLANNED IT ALL! YOU'RE WAY BETTER AT DATING THAN I AM!" Papyrus cried out.

 _ **"HAHAHAHA! Oh god, my sides are killing me!"**_ Chara gasped through her laughter.  _ **"P-Papyrus, why are you like this...?"**_

Papyrus quickly recovered. "NYEH! NYEH HEH! HEH! HEH! DON'T THINK YOU'VE BESTED ME YET! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE NEVER BEEN BEATEN AT DATING AND NEVER WILL!"

"Papyrus, I don't think dating is a compet..." Frisk started, but Papyrus just kept going.

"I CAN EASILY KEEP UP WITH YOU! YOU SEE, I TOO CAN WEAR CLOTHING!"

 _ **"I should hope so."**_ Chara muttered, still laughing.

"IN FACT, I ALWAYS WEAR MY SPECIAL CLOTHES UNDERNEATH MY REGULAR CLOTHES! JUST IN CASE SOMEONE HAPPENS TO ASK ME ON A DATE! BEHOLD!" he leapt into his closet.

 _"I know. I know."_ Frisk thought with a sigh when Chara opened her mouth to tell her again that she had weird taste in guys.

He came out wearing a green shirt reading Cool Dude with basketballs for sleeves, a pair of blue shorts, and a baseball cap. "NYEH! WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY SECRET STYLE?!"

 _ **"You look like a dork."**_ Chara said, though it was said affectionately rather than cruelly.

Frisk just ignored her as she thought Papyrus's outfit was cute. "I love it!"

"NO! A GENUINE COMPLIMENT!" Papyrus cried out in alarm. 'HOWEVER, YOU DON'T TRULY UNDERSTAND THE HIDDEN POWER OF THIS OUTFIT! THEREFORE, WHAT YOU JUST SAID IS INVALID! THIS DATE WON'T ESCALATE ANY FURTHER...UNLESS YOU CAN FIND MY SECRET! BUT THAT WON'T HAPPEN!" he said smugly.

"Um..." Frisk said, totally confused.

 _ **"Just point to something, I'd say."**_ Chara said through her giggles. Frisk randomly pointed to his shirt.

"THIS SHIRT DIDN'T ORIGINALLY SAY "COOL" BUT I IMPROVED IT! EXPERT TIP: ALL ARTICLES OF CLOTHING CAN BE IMPROVED THIS WAY." he said and continued to wait for her to find his "secret."

 _ **"Flirt with him. Maybe he'll tell you what the secret is."**_ Chara suggested, laughing even harder. Watching Frisk and Papyrus attempt to "date" was one of the funniest things she had ever seen.

Frisk blushed and gently grabbed Papyrus's hand. "What's the secret, Papyrus? Can you give me a hint? Please?" she asked, attempting to bat her eyelashes(and failing miserably.)

Papyrus blushed deeply. "H-HOLDING MY HAND SO I'LL TELL YOU THE ANSWER...N-NO! I MUST RESIST!"

Well, that didn't work out. And Frisk was too shy to try anything else, not wanting to freak him out, so she looked over his outfit again. Then she noticed that his hat was bulging slightly. "Is it your hat?"

"MY HAT? MY HAT. MY HAT! NYEH HEH HEH! WELL, THEN, YOU FOUND MY SECRET!" He lifted off his baseball cap, revealing a beautifully wrapped package on top of his head. "IT'S A PRESENT! A PRESENT J-JUST FOR YOU!" He took it off his head and handed it down to her.

"You got me a present?" she asked softly, almost with tears in her eyes as she held the gift like a treasure. She was not used to getting presents, having only ever received them from her sister and then Toriel.

"OF COURSE, I DID, HUMAN. OPEN IT." he said, eager to see her expression when she opened his present.

Frisk unwrapped it very carefully, savoring the moment. She soon gently removed the paper to reveal...

A plate of spaghetti.

She wasn't sure why she was surprised by this.

She smiled up at Papyrus. She knew he loved his spaghetti and that he was giving it to her made her feel special, even if his spaghetti was kind of disgusting. "Thank you so much, Papyrus."

"YOU'RE WELCOME, HUMAN." he said proudly. "AND THIS ISN'T JUST ANY PLAIN OLD PASTA! THIS IS AN ARTISAN'S WORK! SILKEN SPAGHETTI, FINELY AGED IN AN OAKEN CASK, THEN COOKED BY ME, MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS!" He set it down in front of her. "HUMAN, IT'S TIME TO END THIS! THERE IS NO WAY THIS CAN GO ANY FURTHER!"

Frisk looked down at the intimidatingly large plate of spaghetti. She then looked to Papyrus. "How-How about you share it with me?"

His eyes lit up. "YOU'RE SHARING IT WITH ME?! YOU MUST REALLY CARE ABOUT ME; GIVING UP SOME OF YOUR GIFT FOR ME JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOVE PASTA! YOUR DATING POWER...IT'S OFF THE CHARTS! HUMAN...IT'S CLEAR NOW. YOU'RE MADLY IN LOVE WITH ME." Frisk opened her mouth to speak, but Papyrus just kept going. "EVERYTHING YOU DO. EVERYTHING YOU SAY...IT'S ALL BEEN FOR MY SAKE. HUMAN, I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY TOO. IT'S TIME FOR ME TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS... IT'S TIME I TOLD YOU...I..PAPYRUS..."

He shuffled his feet. 'I...UM...BOY, IS IT HOT IN HERE OR IS IT JUST ME?" He thought over what he truly was feeling. He liked the human a lot; she was cool and funny and sweet, but he wasn't madly in love with her like he thought she was with him, not yet. He couldn't match the passion he thought she felt for him. He didn't even know her all that well. He thought he'd fall in love with her on the first date like she apparently had for him, but he hadn't. Instead, dating her like this felt awkward and made him nervous rather than in love. And if he couldn't even match her love for him...he'd end up hurting her in the end. He wouldn't be so great if he did that. He couldn't hurt his dear friend that way. She deserved to be with someone who could make her happy. He had to tell her the truth. 'OH...SHOOT...HUMAN...HUMAN...I...I'M SORRY. I...I'M NOT MADLY IN LOVE WITH YOU LIKE YOU ARE WITH ME."

Frisk did look down for a second as your crush telling you they didn't like you that way did sting, even if she had simply had a crush on him rather than being madly in love with him like he had thought. Papyrus noticed and felt terrible.

I MEAN, I TRIED VERY HARD TO! I THOUGHT THAT BECAUSE YOU FLIRTED WITH ME, I HAD TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU. THEN ON THE DATE, FEELINGS WOULD BLOSSOM FORTH AND I WOULD BE ABLE TO MATCH YOUR PASSION FOR ME. BUT, ALAS, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE FAILED. I FEEL THE SAME AS BEFORE." He looked down at the ground, ashamed for hurting her that way.

 _ **"Then why'd you ask her on a date then and lead her on like that?!"**_ Chara asked even though Papyrus couldn't see or hear her, annoyed and worried about Frisk.

 _"Chara, it's okay. He didn't mean to hurt me or anything like that. He asked me on a date, then realized he didn't feel the same way. It happens. I'd rather him tell me than try to force it."_ Frisk mentally told her friend before turning to Papyrus. "Papyrus..." Frisk started.

"AND INSTEAD BY DATING YOU, I HAVE DRAWN YOU DEEPER INTO YOUR INTENSE LOVE FOR ME. A DARK PRISON OF PASSION WITH NO ESCAPE. HOW COULD I HAVE DONE THIS TO MY DEAR FRIEND?"

"Papyrus!" Frisk called out to snap him out of it and grabbed both his hands, making him look at her. "It's okay. I'm all right, and I'm not mad at you."

This seemed to make him feel better. "I'LL MAKE IT UP TO YOU, HUMAN! I'LL KEEP BEING YOUR COOL FRIEND...IF YOU STILL WANT ME TO BE. YOU ARE VERY GREAT. IT WOULD BE TRAGIC TO LOSE YOUR FRIENDSHIP." He looked at her pleadingly, not wanting to lose his new friend because of this.

Frisk gave him a reassuring smile, having not wanted to lose Papyrus as a friend either. He was one of the sweetest people she had ever met. "I'd like that."

"GREAT! HOW ABOUT WE EAT THIS SPAGHETTI AND JUST...HANG OUT FOR A WHILE?" he asked, wanting to spend some time with her where they could just hang out and be friends without them both being really nervous and awkward.

"That would be awesome."

...

"And then it just exploded...all over." Frisk told Papyrus a little later, laughing. Papyrus had split the spaghetti onto two plates and now they were sitting on the edge of his racecar bed, talking and laughing as they ate. Now that they weren't trying so hard to impress each other, they were really clicking and this felt so much more natural than their bad attempt to "date." Right now, they were talking about their worst cooking disasters, with Frisk telling Papyrus about the time she and Tina had tried to make homemade soup with the ingredients they had got from a church food pantry. Chara sat on the other side of the room, listening, but letting them have their privacy too. Neither of them noticed the magical glowing eye watching them through the keyhole. Sans was checking on his brother, making sure everything was okay.

Papyrus laughed. "HOW DID YOU DO THAT, HUMAN?"

"I have no clue. It may have possibly been because Tina accidentally added yeast rather than salt or I turned the heat up too high. It just happened. Maybe the same way YOU ended up setting fire to solid stone." she teased him, remembering his previous story of how he had set fire to his friend Undyne's stone counter after turning up the heat way too high.

"HEY, IT WAS VERY FLAMMABLE SOLID STONE!" Papyrus defended.

"If you say so." she said, laughing.

He blushed in embarrassment and changed the subject. "SANS HAS ACTUALLY GOTTEN INTO BAKING A LITTLE TOO. I'M PROUD OF HIM FOR ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING, EVEN THOUGH THE STUFF HE BAKES IS A LITTLE WEIRD."

"What do you mean?"

"A FEW DAYS AGO, HE TRIED BAKING THIS THING THAT LOOKED LIKE A QUICHE, BUT IT WAS FILLED WITH A SUGARY, CHOCOLATELY, NON=EGG SUBSTANCE." Papyrus said with a shrug. "HOW ABSURD!"

"I think that's called...a pie." Frisk said, amused.

"HUH. THAT'S A WEIRD NAME FOR A QUICHE-LIKE FOOD ITEM. WELL, AFTER IT'S DONE, HE PUTS IT ON THE TABLE AND SAT NEXT TO IT, WAITING FOR IT TO COOL...THEN HE PROMPTLY FELL ASLEEP RIGHT ON TOP OF IT, SQUISHING HIS...PIE...AND STAYED ASLEEP."

Frisk laughed. "How the heck did he do that?"

"MY LAZYBONES BROTHER CAN SLEEP LITERALLY ANYWHERE. UNDER THE RUG WHERE I ALMOST TRIP OVER HIM, ON THE OUTSIDE STAIRS WHEN HE'S TOO LAZY TO JUST WALK IN THE DOOR, AT HIS POST, WHICH IS REALLY ANNOYING BECAUSE HE SHOULDN'T BE SLACKING OFF DURING WORK, ON TOP OF HIS PUZZLES, IN A TREE, SOMEHOW, AND ONCE IN A SNOWPILE. LUCKILY, I WAS DOING MY PATROLS AND FOUND HIM BEFORE HE COULD CATCH A COLD. IT'S A GOOD THING HE HAS A GREAT BROTHER LIKE ME TO TAKE CARE OF HIM AND TAKE HIM HOME AND TUCK HIM IN WITH HIS KETCHUP BOTTLE."

Outside the door, Sans turned bright blue at the fact that the human now knew some very embarrassing stuff about him.

Frisk smiled at this, holding back a giggle at the mental image of the tough and sometimes scary Sans all curled up asleep with his ketchup bottle. "I know he's glad to have a brother like you."

"I KNOW HE IS. AND HE CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON ME TO HELP HIM. I-I JUST WISH HE UNDERSTOOD THAT." Papyrus sighed and looked at the ground. When he spoke again, his voice was incredibly soft, coming as a shock to Frisk as she never had heard him speak quietly before. "I'm worried about him, human."

Both Frisk and Chara jolted at this and Chara turned her full attention to the conversation. "What's wrong?" they both asked, though Papyrus could only hear Frisk.

At the gentle question, it all came bursting out. "He's-He's been having these nightmares a lot where he starts screaming in his sleep. He won't tell me what's wrong, he just tells me he's fine or makes some dumb pun. And during the day, I can barely get him motivated for anything. And his HP suddenly dropped down to one and-and I can't get him motivated to raise it! Whenever we spar, I'm afraid I'm going to really hurt him with his HP being that low. And-And he won't talk to me or let me in...I know something's wrong, but...he won't let me help him!"

Frisk set down her plate and pulled the tall skeleton into a hug. He wrapped his arms around her, clinging to her like a lifeline. She wasn't sure what to say, so she held him, letting him know she was there for him. Chara was incredibly worried as she sat on the other side of Papyrus, wondering what had happened to her best friend and why he was acting like this.

"I-I don't know what to do, human." Papyrus whispered. "He keeps pushing everyone away; me...Undyne...King Asgore... Sans acts like everything's fine, but it's clearly not. I don't know if he's not feeling well because of his HP or if someone said or did something that's upsetting him, or if it's something else, but I know there's something wrong and I don't know what. He's my brother and I want to help and protect him, but he won't even tell me what's wrong!"

Chara was shaking, anxious about her friend. One HP was bad! Some monsters fell down at that! What was wrong with him? And why was her easygoing, laidback, outgoing friend so wary, paranoid, and shutting his own brother out? Sans had never hidden what he was feeling before and his HP used to be so much higher. Frisk simply hugged Papyrus and softly rubbed his back, not sure what else to do to help besides listen and let Papyrus vent.

Sans sighed, soft enough that his brother and the human couldn't hear him. Apparently he wasn't as good as he thought he was at pretending he was fine. And now he was hurting Papyrus by trying to protect him. He still had to protect Papyrus from what was happening. He couldn't put him into danger, but maybe he could let him in just a little bit, or at least make more of an effort to try for his brother, even if he felt like it was useless.

"WOWIE, I FEEL A LITTLE BETTER AFTER GETTING THIS OFF MY CHEST. YOU'RE A GOOD LISTENER, HUMAN." Papyrus said after a few minutes, returning to his normal tone as he sat up but still kept one arm wrapped around his friend. "AND I KNOW WE CAN FIGURE THIS OUT! WE CAN GET SANS FEELING BETTER! HE HAS A COOL BROTHER LIKE ME AND A COOL FRIEND LIKE YOU TO BE THERE FOR HIM. HE WON'T EVER BE ALONE. AND MAYBE HE'LL FIGURE THIS OUT AND TALK TO US AND WE CAN HELP HIM. AND WITH OUR ENCOURAGEMENT, HE'LL START PUTTING MORE EFFORT INTO THINGS AND STOP BEING SUCH A LAZYBONES. AND THEN HE'LL FEEL BETTER AND BE HAPPY FOR REAL!" Papyrus was determined to make his brother happy again like he had once been.

"I'll do everything I can to help and be a good friend to him while I'm here." she promised.

"THANK YOU, HUMAN. I KNOW YOU'LL BE A GREAT FRIEND TO HIM." Papyrus said. He then noticed the time on his clock. "OH NO! I'VE GOT TO GET BACK TO SENTRY DUTY AND MAKE SURE SANS HASN'T FALLEN ASLEEP AT HIS POST AGAIN. UNDYNE GOT REALLY ANNOYED LAST TIME THAT HAPPENED...ANYWAY, LET ME GIVE YOU MY PHONE NUMBER." He scribbled it down on a piece of paper and gave it to her as outside the door, Sans teleported to his station before Papyrus could notice he was eavesdropping. "IF YOU NEED ANY HELP OR JUST WANT TO HANG OUT, FEEL FREE TO CALL ME AT ANY TIME!" He started to race out the door, but then remembered the thing he had forgotten to tell her after their battle. "OH YEAH! TO GET TO THE BARRIER, YOU'LL NEED TO PASS THROUGH THE KING'S CASTLE."

Chara snapped out of her worried thoughts about Sans. _ **"Frisk, ask Papyrus about the king."**  _she requested softly, wanting to know what was going on with her father.

"Papyrus, what's the king like? Why did he want you to capture me?" she asked.

"ONLY SOMEONE WITH A POWERFUL SOUL CAN ESCAPE THE BARRIER. THAT'S WHY THE KING WANTS TO AQUIRE A HUMAN. HE WANTS TO OPEN THE BARRIER WITH SOUL POWER. THEN US MONSTERS CAN RETURN TO THE SURFACE." Papyrus explained. Frisk looked terrified. "DON'T YOU WORRY, HUMAN." he reassured her. "THE KING IS...A BIG FUZZY PUSHOVER! EVERYBODY LOVES THAT GUY. I'M CERTAIN IF YOU SAY, "EXCUSE ME, MR. DREEMURR, CAN I PLEASE GO HOME?" HE'LL GUIDE YOU RIGHT OT THE BARRIER HIMSELF."

Chara sighed in relief.  _ **"That sounds like Dad."**_ she said with a smile, then frowned again.  _ **"But what's wrong with Sans and Mom?"**_

 _"The king is your dad?!"_ Frisk blurted out in her head, looking shocked.

 _ **"Yes, he is. I'll explain as soon as we leave Papyrus's house."**_ she said.

Frisk nodded, both to Papyrus and Chara. "Thanks, Papyrus. Um, I hate to bother you, but how do I get to the capital again?"

"FIRST YOU GO THROUGH THE CAVERN I SHOWED YOU AND INTO WATERFALL. THEN ONCE YOU GET TO WATERFALL, PASS TEM VILLAGE AND YOU'LL SOON CAME TO A BRIDGE THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO HOTLAND. GO THROUGH HOTLAND AND THE CORE, AND YOU SHOULD REACH THE PALACE." he told her. "NOW, I'VE GOT TO GET TO MY SHIFT, BUT JUST CALL ME IF YOU NEED ANYTHING. THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP!" He then said goodbye to her and bolted out the door.

...

 _"So King Asgore and Mom were married and they adopted you after you fell?"_ Frisk asked Chara as they traveled through Snowdin towards the cavern.

**_"Yeah, and they loved each other and me and Asriel a lot. I-I don't know what happened and why Mom and Dad are separated and Mom's afraid Dad will hurt you. That's not the Dad I knew. He'd never harm an innocent soul, not ever. And he and Mom were so affectionate all the time. They were always hugging and kissing. Me and Azzy always thought it was gross. But-But I wish I could see them doing it again. I don't know what's wrong, Frisk. I don't know what's wrong with Mom and Dad and Sans. I-I don't know if it's because Azzy and I died or if there's something else going on."_ **

Frisk wasn't sure what to say or do to help Chara, so again she listened as Chara talked.

_**"Sans; he was so outgoing back then. He loved telling jokes and pulling pranks on everyone. He-He even pulled the old whoopee cushion on the ground trick on Dad the time we all went on a picnic together. Not many would pull a joke on the king of all monsters, but that's the type of person Sans was. And Mom thought it was an absolute riot. She teased Dad about it all day...** _

Frisk was assaulted by a wave of images as Chara spoke about that day. She could see a happy family around a picnic blanket, a male goat monster with a golden beard, his arm wrapped around Toriel. The two nuzzled noses and Asriel pretended to gag at his parents being so mushy, causing his father to laugh and ruffle his son's hair. Sans was making jokes, completely relaxed and smiling genuinely. When Asgore got up to go grab something, Sans subtly put a whoopee cushion where the king had been sitting. Asriel looked kind of shocked, but Toriel was holding back a laugh, and she could feel Chara doing the same. Whenever Asgore sat down and the whoopie cushion went off, everyone burst out laughing, even Asgore once he got over his surprise...

 _ **"...And-And I wish I could see them like that again. Laughing, having fun, being happy...Hey, Frisk, are you okay?"**_ Chara asked, noticing Frisk was looking disoriented and spacey again. It was extremely weird seeing images from someone else's head like you were there.

Frisk snapped out of it once Chara's focus was off her memories and on her.  _"Huh?"_

 ** _"I asked if you were okay. You were spacing out on me."_** she said.

_"Sort of...Um, Chara, on a scale of one to ten, how mad would you be if I told you I sort of accidentally saw your memories while you were reminicising?"_

**_"Wait? What?!"_ **

_"I'm sorry, Chara! I didn't mean to snoop around in your head! Sometimes when you're thinking really hard or remembering something, I can see it and I don't know why and I'm not trying to see it and...!"_

**_"It's happened before?!"_** Chara asked, freaked out.

_"Yeah, when we were in the clearing with the snow poffs and you were thinking about when you first met Sans. I meant to tell you then, but then Greater Dog jumped us and I forgot about it completely until now when it happened again. I'm so sorry about this. I really am...I..."_

**_"Frisk, it-it's okay. I'm not mad at you. I can read your thoughts, sometimes when you aren't even thinking to me so I guess it makes sense that you can see mine. Just...try to snap me out of it if it happens again. There-There are some things I'd like to keep to myself."_ **

_"If I can snap myself out of it, I will."_ Frisk promised.

 _ **"Thanks. This is so weird and freaky..."**_ Chara muttered.

_"Sorry."_

**_"It's not like it's your fault. By the way, we're approaching the cavern. We might wanna keep an eye out for monsters."_** Chara said. Frisk nodded and took a deep breath as she entered the new area.

The air immediately warmed up and she saw a bunch of waterfalls near the cement path she walked on by the artificial river. She didn't see any monsters so far, but was keeping an eye out. Chara was too, but her mind was elsewhere, worried about her family and Sans. Frisk was worried too, but not sure what exactly she could do to help, if she could even do anything at all.

"Yo!" a voice said suddenly, making Chara and Frisk jump. It was a small yellow biped dinosaur with no arms who was wearing a striped shirt. He sounded maybe a year or two younger than Frisk. "Are you sneaking off to see her too?"

"Who?" Frisk asked, confused.

The young monster grinned. "Undyne! She's the coolest, right? I want to be just like her when I grow up! Hey, don't tell my parents I'm here." He laughed and wandered off.

 _ **"He's excitable, isn't he? I don't blame him though. Undyne's super cool. She's always..."**_ Chara cut herself off when she saw Sans up ahead, actually awake and sitting at his post.

He grinned to them. He seemed more relaxed around Frisk than before, but Chara still sensed some tenseness in him. "What? Haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before? Fortunately, two jobs means twice as many required breaks. I'm going to Grillby's. Wanna come?"

"Sure." Frisk said, giving him a smile.

"Well, if you insist, I'll pry myself away from my work." he said as he got up, then headed in the opposite direction of Snowdin. "Over here. I know a shortcut." He then took her hand, took a few steps, and warped away, Chara thankfully able to catch up enough to warp with them.

A few minutes after they left, Undyne came walking up on her regular patrol and noticed the empty sentry station. "Of course that punk decided to go on break again..." she sighed. "I'll yell at that idiot later, after I find that stupid human..."

...

"Fast shortcut, huh?" Sans asked, having to hold Frisk up as she caught her balance. "Hey, everyone."

"Hey, Sans."

"Hi, Sans."

"Greetings, Sans."

"Hiya, Sansy-"

 _"Sounds like everyone knows him here."_ Frisk thought to Chara.

 ** _"Of course they do. He loves this place."_** Chara said, a small smile appearing on her face as she thought of all the times Sans had brought her here.

 _"Chara..."_ Frisk thought to her as she felt herself about to get sucked into another memory.

 ** _"Oh. Sorry."_** Chara said and managed to block her out.

"Hey, Sans, weren't you here for breakfast a few minutes ago?" a purple monster in a tank top asked.

"Nah, I haven't had breakfast in at least half an hour. You must be thinking of brunch." Sans said as he led Frisk to the bar and pulled out a stool for her. "Here, get comfy."

Frisk sat down and heard the sudden sound of a whoopie cushion going off. "I...really should have expected that, huh?" she sighed as Chara nodded and laughed.

"Whoops. Watch where you sit down. Sometimes weirdos put whoopie cushions on the seats." Sans said with a grin. "Anyway, let's order. Whaddaya want?"

"Hmm...I think I'll have a burger." she said.

"Hey, that sounds pretty good. Grillby, we'll have a double order of burg." he told the fire monster, who nodded and went to go make them.

"So, what do you think of my brother?" he asked casually.

 _ **"He's a dweeb."**_ Chara answered jokingly.

"He's really nice and cool." Frisk told him, ignoring Chara.

"Of course he's cool. You'd be too if you wore that outfit every day. He'd never take it off unless he absolutely had to. Oh well. At least he washes it. And by that I mean he wears it in the shower." Sans told her, making Frisk snort and Chara laugh. Might as well get a little revenge on his brother for telling the human Sans liked to sleep with a ketchup bottle.

"Here comes the grub." Sans said as Grillby appeared with two plates of burgers, setting them down in front of them. "Want some ketchup?"

"No thanks. I think I learned my lesson after last time." she said with a laugh.

He shrugged. "More for me." He began guzzling the ketchup right from the bottle. Somehow, Frisk wasn't surprised by this. "Anyway, cool or not, you have to agree Papyrus tries real hard. Like how he keeps trying to be part of the Royal Guard. One day he went to the house of the head of the Royal Guard and begged her to let him in. Of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight, but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. Seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. It's, uh, still a work in progress. Anyway, I wanted to ask you something. Have you ever heard of a talking flower?"

Frisk's face turned white as she thought of Flowey and she nodded.

Sans saw this, but he continued, wanting to see how much she knew. "So you know all about it. It's called the Echo Flower. They're all over the marsh. Say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over. Papyrus told me something interesting the other day. Sometimes, when no one else is around, a flower appears and whispers things to him. Flattery...advice...encouragement...predictions..." Frisk went even whiter. "Weird, huh? Someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him." At least he hoped that's what it was, rather than a certain creepy yellow flower. The last time when he had thought it was Flowey, it HAD turned out to be an echo flower that someone had planted near Papyrus's sentry station as a prank, so he really hoped that's what it was this time around...

"It's not an echo flower!" Frisk cried out, dropping her plate and half eaten burger to the floor with a loud crash that made everyone look at her. "There's...There's this really creepy flower monster named Flowey...He's pure evil! We've gotta get him away from Papyrus!" She made to jump up, but Sans gently grabbed hold of her wrist. Time again seemed to freeze around them, and everything went dead silent.

"I was afraid of this. That weed again." Sans said angrily. "I'm guessing he's been messing with you too, kid?" Chara hadn't seen either incident with Flowey, so she looked to Frisk, confused at that.

"When I first fell, he tried to kill me but M- a lady at the ruins saved me and then when I left the ruins he popped up again and started saying all this creepy stuff... He'll hurt Papyrus! We've got to stop him!" she told him, so panicked she was hyperventilating.

"Kiddo...Kiddo...Take a deep breath. Try to calm down. I'm not going to let him hurt Papyrus."  _Not again._  he thought to himself before focusing on calming the kid down.  _"_ Just calm down. Tell me what that weed said to you."

Frisk told him everything Flowey had said to her, even the worst of it. Sans was understandably worried, but knew how scared the kid was and kept calm. "Look, kid, that flower is a soulless psycho nutcase. Don't listen to anything he says and DO NOT let him get to you. He's extremely dangerous and thinks violence, screwing with people's lives and manipulating them is a game. If you see him, hear him, or even feel like he might be around, stay clear of him and come get me immediately. Got it?"

She nodded shakily. "Got it."

"Good. Now...please don't tell Papyrus about this yet."

"But..."

"Kid, look, I overheard Papyrus talking to you earlier. I know he's worried about me. But if you tell Papyrus, he'll panic and try to fix this himself, and I don't want him confronting that thing alone and getting himself hurt or worse. I will talk to him later when I can figure out how to without him deciding to go it alone and I'll warn him to keep a look out, but just let me handle this for now, okay?"

"But what if YOU get hurt?" Both Chara and Frisk asked, though Frisk's voice was of course the only one Sans heard.

"I'll be fine. I've dealt with the weed before. And I'm not as fragile as Papyrus seems to think I am. My HP may be a little low, but I can still fight and no one's been able to land a hit on me yet."

 ** _"One HP is not a LITTLE low, Sans. That's dangerously low. What if he catches you off guard or tires you out and lands a hit?" _**Chara asked, beyond worried now. She wished she could make Sans hear her, but she still couldn't.

"Sans..." Frisk started, very concerned as well.

"Kid. Stop worrying. I WILL be fine. Like I said, I've dealt with this guy before. I can handle this, and I'm not putting Papyrus at risk. He may be taller than me, but I'm still his big brother and I'm going to protect him no matter what you both say."

"I understand that, but you still shouldn't do it all alone. I can h..."

He sighed. "I'm not putting you in that kind of danger either. Look, I know you wanna help, but the best thing you can do right now is just keep an eye out while you're traveling and be careful. Okay?"

Frisk opened her mouth, but knew he wouldn't budge, so she reluctantly nodded.

"Good." The room seemed to lighten again and she could hear the voices of the other monsters again. She wanted to ask Sans how he did it, but he was telling Grillby to put their meals on his tab. He then said goodbye to her before heading out the door. Frisk sighed softly and gave Grillby some gold for the plate she broke, then headed out as well with Chara, both girls absolutely silent as they tried to figure out what to do, keeping a wary eye out for anyone threatening, especially a certain yellow flower. But said flower was smart and kept easily out of sight as the two entered Waterfall.

...

_((Well, it seems the human and the Smiley Trashbag have formed an alliance against me. Sightly concerning, but I can work around it. It appears the human's grown attached to the skinny trashbag too. Not exactly surprising. I could kill that loser to drive them both mad; that might be interesting, but without my resets, that would likely work against me. I don't feel like dying again. And seeing what the kid does next will be MUCH more interesting. Snowdin wasn't exactly much of a test of their will. Skinny Trashbag is harmless, and the dog guards don't have enough brains to scrape together to be an actual threat. I bet she's real proud of herself, keeping her little vow not to kill, but NOW she's going to be dealing with a relentless, UNDYING warrior. Let's see how long her little promise lasts. This should be VERY fun to watch. And if it goes the way I think it will, that little alliance with Trashbag will be toast. He's not gonna want to be all buddy buddy with a killer...))_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nd that's the end of this roller coaster ride of a chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed both the humor and the serious parts.
> 
> Flowey does say in the games that Sans has caused him his fair share of resets, and that he tried various routes, befriending people and killing people in the various timelines. It's part of the reason Sans is so wary and depressed.
> 
> For those of you interested in my story mentions, IAmUmbreon11 has changed her name to InkyTheInk, for those looking for her Undertale fics. She has written a lot of good ones, and I highly recommend checking them out.
> 
> And a huge shout-out to my friend Stallion6 Of Deviantart for looking over my scenes and giving me advice and suggestions. You've been an awesome help and I couldn't have done this story without you.
> 
> Be sure to check out Stallion's Undertale fics as they're absolutely amazing. The first fic is called A Bone-A-Fide Master.
> 
> Summary: Souls...something so strong yet fragile...Something that holds a person's identity and abilities...what would happen if fragments separated from the main one, and yet gained strength... Now follow Ash on an adventure... Overcoming obstacles with his cheerful attitude, bone skills, and...DETERMINATION.
> 
> With Ash carrying a piece of Papyrus's soul and a small fragment of Sans's, it makes the story both humorous and heartwarming. Ash carries the cheerful attitude and general sweetness of Papyrus, but if you threaten his friends, prepare to have a bad time!
> 
> Stallion has just written another amazing fic as well, The Underground Will Never Be The Same. It's the very first Halo/Undertale crossover on Fanfiction.
> 
> Summary: In one world, a plan went through, and failed. This lead to the fate of monsters and humans be left to one named Frisk who could decide...Mercy? Or Genocide? The Plan never got to start in this one...and Centuries pass...after stumbling upon a gang's actions, she gets a protector following her to the underground... A Spartan Headhunter.


	7. Into Waterfall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After having successfully befriended(and not so successfully dated) Papyrus, Frisk and Chara head into Waterfall, where they learn Chara's old friend and hero has become a dangerous enemy for Frisk. As the two begin to navigate Waterfall, Chara struggles with crushing guilt, Frisk tries to figure out what to do to help her friends and protect herself, Undyne tries to hunt down the human, and Papyrus tries to find a way to calm down his old friend while protecting his new one. All the while, a yellow flower watches, hoping things will become his version of interesting. Can Frisk survive her first encounter with Undyne? And can she keep her vow of not killing anyone when someone(besides the insane Flowey) truly wants her dead?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone has any questions, suggestions, or comments, please let me know! I love hearing from my readers!

_**"This isn't good. With what you told me about this flower, Sans shouldn't be going after it all on his own. He's really strong, but with one HP, all it would take is one mistep, one loss of concentration, and he could be turned to dust."**_ Chara said worriedly as the two entered Waterfall again.

 _"Maybe we SHOULD talk to Papyrus."_ Frisk said softly. _"I don't want him to get hurt, but we can't just leave him not knowing about this. He wouldn't want Sans to be doing this all by himself. Plus, we do need to warn him to be careful if Flowey approaches him again. Who knows what Flowey would do?"_ She shivered at the thought.

**_"Sans said he WOULD tell him. And Sans is likely right that Papyrus would panic and try to stop Flowey on his own if he thought he was gonna hurt Sans, and he could get really hurt. Trust me, both those brothers are stubborn as hell when it comes to one another. We should just wait for Sans to tell him."_ **

_"Then what should we do? Sans won't let me help."_

_**"Hmm..."**_ Chara thought this over while they passed Sans's empty sentry station. Her eyes lit up as she thought of a solution. _**"I know! Let's talk to Undyne! Whenever I was alive, she was training for the Royal Guard. And from what Sans said, she might be the head of it by now. She's really tough and strong, and she's always looking out for other people. She's totally cool! Azzy and I used to watch her train. I always wanted to be just like her. If you told her what's going on, she'd help Sans for sure. Between them both, they'd be able to defeat that flower!"**_

 _"Wow, you're fangirling over her as much as that monster kid was."_ Frisk joked and Chara pouted. _"It's a good idea though."_ She then remembered something about what Toriel said. _"But-But if Asgore wants me dead and Undyne's the head of the Royal Guard..."_

Chara shook her head vehemently. _**"Frisk...Dad wouldn't want you dead! You haven't hurt anyone. Maybe...Maybe there was some sort of misunderstanding and that's why Mom's acting strange...but Dad wouldn't harm an innocent! And neither would Undyne."**_ She was breathing heavily despite the fact that ghosts don't really need to breathe. **_"They couldn't...they wouldn't...Dad wouldn't..."_**

Frisk was quiet. She wasn't completely sure about that from what both Toriel and Papyrus had said about Asgore wanting to get a human soul, but she didn't want to hurt Chara, plus, she didn't know fully what was going on. _"We'll see, Chara."_ she said, not wanting to lie. _"We'll find out what's going on."_

 ** _"Frisk, you're worrying too much. Everything will be fine. You'll see."_** Chara told her as Frisk headed down a wooden bridge, only to realize it was a dead end with only an echo flower at the end.

"I thought I saw something behind the rushing water." an Echo flower whispered to them. Frisk blinked and looked to Chara.

 _ **"Might as well check it out. We've gotta go back up anyone since SOMEONE keeps getting lost."**_ Chara said snarkily.

Frisk just mumbled some incomprehensible retort and headed up and checked out the waterfall, finding a door behind it. "Whoa...Looks like there's a secret passageway behind the waterfall." She peeked inside, finding only a dusty tutu. "Wonder who lost this?" She picked it up and took it with her.

 _ **"Stealing a tutu, are we?"**_ Chara asked.

 _"Hey, if someone's looking for this, I'll return it."_ Frisk said as she found the right path. There was some thick vegetation that she would have to walk though, so she started moving through it, stopping when she heard voices.

"H-HI, UNDYNE. I'M HERE WITH MY DAILY REPORT." she heard Papyrus say and looked up, seeing Papyrus talking to someone in a full suit of armor who was even taller than he was, and much bulkier.  The suit of armor was steel gray with black chest and shoulder plates.  Long red hair flowed from the top of the helmet, and the helmet also appeared to have two almost glowing eye holes and a jagged mouth.  She ducked deeper into the grass as the metal clad woman was intimidating and despite what Chara said, she still wanted to be cautious, especially since Papyrus appeared very nervous.

 _ **"Frisk, it's okay..."**_ Chara started to say, but stopped when Papyrus kept talking.

"UHHHH...REGARDING THAT HUMAN I CALLED YOU ABOUT EARLIER..." Papyrus paused as Undyne said something Frisk couldn't hear. "HUH? DID I FIGHT THEM?"

 _ **"Chara, can you get closer and tell me what she's saying?"**_ Frisk asked her friend quickly. Chara nodded with a worried expression and floated up to them.

"YES, OF COURSE I DID. I FOUGHT THEM VALIANTLY." Papyrus was telling Undyne as Chara hovered beside them unseen, projecting to Frisk.

"Good. Did you capture them?" Undyne asked.

"W-W-WELL, NO. I TRIED VERY HARD, UNDYNE, BUT IN THE END...I FAILED." Papyrus told her.

She sighed. "It's okay, Papyrus. Just as long as you're not hurt. Don't worry about it. I was itching to fight one of those things anyway, after...never mind. I'll take that punk's soul myself!"

"W-WHAT? YOU'RE GOING TO TAKE THE HUMAN'S SOUL YOURSELF?! BUT UNDYNE, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DESTROY THEM! YOU SEE...YOU SEE, THEY'RE..."

"Papyrus, look, I know you don't like it when people get hurt, but humans...they're extremely dangerous, okay? And this human's soul is the ticket to our freedom! Asgore will be able to free us all! This is our duty! Your duty!"

"BUT...THEY'RE..."

"Papyrus, everyone needs this! They're all trapped down here, suffering, because of humans! Not to mention the monsters who have lost their lives! We can be free! We can take back the surface!"

Papyrus looked down, trying to figure out what to do.  He didn't want to betray his old friend or the other monsters, but he didn't want his new friend to get hurt or worse.

He then saw something out of the corner of his eye and spotted the human, who was wearing a terrified, vulnerable expression as they hid in the grass. He then knew exactly what to do. He would make the human and Undyne friends! Undyne was a good person. Once she saw that the human was good too, not bad like the other human he had heard about that had hurt some monsters and made her lose her eye, she wouldn't want to kill them. But he had to keep his new friend safe until Undyne figured this out and stopped being so murdery. Subtly, he winked at her as he spoke to Undyne. "I-I UNDERSTAND. I'LL HELP HOWEVER I CAN." _Help you two become besties! I know you guys will like each other once you give the human a chance!_

He then walked off, giving Frisk a subtle hand motion to hide better. However, when Undyne went to go back on her patrols to look for the human, she saw the faintest rustling in the grass. She summoned her spear and stared into the grass, looking around. Frisk held her breath. Undyne studied the grass for a few more minutes before suddenly backing away and leaving.

Frisk waited a few more minutes before leaving her hiding spot. Suddenly, she heard something moving in the grass behind her and whipped around.

Only to see the monster kid from earlier exiting the grass too. "Yo, did you see the way she was staring at you? That...was AWESOME! I'm so jealous! What'd you do to get her attention?

"I, um...How long were you hiding in there?!" Frisk asked in shock.

"A little while. I reaaally wanted to see Undyne! Ha ha, c'mon! Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!" He started to run off, but then fell on his face, but then got up quickly before Frisk could help him up and ran off.

Frisk shivered. "Wasn't so awesome to me..." she whispered and looked for Chara.

Chara came back to her, head hanging. _**"Frisk, I'm so sorry. I...I thought..."**_

 _"It's okay, Chara. It's going to be okay."_ Frisk tried to reassure her.

 ** _"I-I guess Mom was right...Dad has changed...Undyne has too...she...she hates...It-It's all my..."_** She stopped whatever she had been saying and thinking. **_"Let's-Let's get out of here..."_**

Frisk reached over and tried to hug Chara, only for her arms to go right through, having forgotten for a brief second that she was a ghost.

Chara laughed, a sad, hysterical laugh rather than a good one. _**"It-It won't work...I'm dead, remember...I'm dead and Azzy's dead and Mom's hiding away, Sans is hurting, and...and Dad and Undyne have become people I don't know..."**_ She was laughing and crying now. **_"Pathetic, aren't I? I-I couldn't even..."_**

 _"Chara...this isn't your fault. You didn't make their decisions for them. This isn't on you."_ Frisk tried to comfort her, but Chara just moved on ahead.

Unable to think of anything to say, Frisk quietly followed her. They soon arrived at another area with a rushing river connected to another waterfall and four strange seeds lying on the ground. A sign was near her, so she read it. "When four bridge seeds align in the water, they will sprout. Huh. That's weird." Chara didn't even make a snarky comment or say anything at all, which worried Frisk as she picked up the bridge seeds and dropped them in the water. As the sign said, they sprouted into beautiful pink flowers with green foliage, creating a bridge across the water. "Wow, that's really pretty." She hesitantly put her foot on it to see if the fragile looking bridge would take her weight.

 _ **"It's safe. Go on across."**_ Chara told her, the ghost's voice lacking its usual spark. Frisk walked across, trying to figure out how to cheer up her friend. Lost in thought as she entered the next area, she bumped into a centaur looking creature, which was light brown colored with a black mane and a yellow and green tail that looked like the lower half of a snake.  His muscles were extremely well defined, especially his biceps, and he grinned in a friendly but somewhat flirtatious way when he turned and saw her.

"Whoa, girl. You can look at these guns, but no touching. Don't know ya enough for that yet." the centaur said, flexing his biceps proudly as he blocked her way. His eyes then narrowed a little. "Wait, you're a human, aren't you?"

 _ **"Challenge Aaron to a flexing contest."**_ Chara told her quickly.

_"Wha?"_

_**"Just do it. Quick."** _

"Your biceps are fantastic, but I bet you can't beat me!" Frisk told the centaur, flexing her own biceps, definitely much less defined than the centaur's.

Something about the challenge caused his demeanor to relax. "Flexing contest? Okay. Flex more." he said with a grin, flexing twice as hard as her and almost accidentally punching her in the face.

But Frisk's determination was strong, even for stupid things, and she flexed again.

"Nice! I won't lose though!" he said and winked to her, flexing even harder in a series of complicated poses, this time actually getting her in the face and making her nose bleed. But Frisk just recovered and flexed even harder, though it still wasn't that impressive. The centaur gave her his best flex...and blasted himself out of the room, going straight up through the ceiling.

Frisk stared up at the hole in the ceiling. "What the...?"

Chara burst out laughing, her grief momentarily set aside at the goofy cartoony blast=off and Frisk's completely befuddled expression. _**"That ALWAYS happens. No clue how, but it's hilarious to watch."**_ Frisk caught a hazy memory of a young Chara and Asriel having a flexing contest, or attempting to, with the centaur, Aaron blasting himself out of the room, and then Asriel attempting to flex himself out of the room as well, just to see if he could. Needless to say, he couldn't, but it did provide Chara with blackmail material for the next few weeks...

 _"Chara...It's happening again."_ Frisk warned her.

 _ **"Oops. At least that was a good memory."**_ Chara said softly. _**"I have really got to stop flashbacking..."**_ She didn't mind Frisk seeing her good memories so much, but she really didn't want Frisk seeing her horrible ones...

 _"I don't think thinking is something you can stop."_ Frisk pointed out. _"If something bad comes up, I will warn you, and you don't have to talk about anything you don't want to. I won't press or try to snoop."_ From what little Chara had told her, she guessed her life on the surface was probably worse than Frisk's had been. She assumed that was what Chara didn't want her to see.

 _ **"Thank you."**_ Chara told her gratefully, catching Frisk's thoughts on the subject even though Frisk wasn't intentionally projecting them. It was true that Chara's past on the surface was part of what she wanted to keep to herself, though it certainly wasn't all of it. The others...she knew there may come a point where she might have to tell Frisk about them, but she really didn't want to.

 _"You're welcome."_ Frisk told her as she moved on to the next puzzle. trying to get across the water. She tried to put the seeds down across like last time, but there was only enough space for three, so they wouldn't sprout, and she had to call them back with the blossom bell. She walked back and forth, trying to find a spot she could get all four of them in. She was seriously considering whether she could take a flying leap and just jump over without having to deal with the stupid seeds.

Chara tried not to laugh, Frisk's bad puzzle skills helping her keep her mind off things. It had taken a few minutes, but she had spotted the solution before Frisk. _**"You want the solution, or you want to keep trying to solve this on your own?"**_ she asked.

 _"Can you give me a hint?"_ Frisk asked sheepishly, blushing in embarrassment.

**_"There's not enough spots for the seeds to go straight across, but what if you tried sending them in another direction?"_ **

_"What do you..."_ The solution finally occurred to her. _"Oh..."_ She dropped the seeds so they went vertically, going with the current. They sprouted, making a bridge for her to go straight down to the outcrop of the other side. She smacked her forehead. _"I can't believe I missed something that obvious..."_

 ** _"Hey, it happens."_** Suddenly Frisk's phone rang, making them both jump. Frisk pulled it out and answered it, expecting it to be Toriel.

"HELLO! THIS IS PAPYRUS!" she heard Papyrus say cheerfully, though there was a bit of nervousness in his voice.

"Papyrus? Are you okay? Wait, how'd you get my number?" she asked, realizing she forgot to give it to him during their hangout.

"IT WAS EASY! I JUST DIALED EVERY NUMBER SEQUENTIALLY UNTIL I GOT YOURS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!" His laugh sounded a little strange though and Frisk got worried.

"Are you all right? You sound a bit upset." she asked.

"UM, YEAH, THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS ALL RIGHT. NOW...WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?" he asked.

 _ **"Papyrus, what the hell kind of a question is that?"**_ Chara asked even though Papyrus couldn't hear her, wondering if he knew how dirty that could sound.

Frisk blinked in utter confusion. "Um, why?"

"I'M, UH, ASKING FOR A FRIEND. SHE THOUGHT SHE SAW YOU WEARING A RIBBON. IS THAT TRUE? ARE YOU STILL WEARING THAT RIBBON?"

"Um, yeah, I'm still wearing the ribbon." Frisk told him, though she was planning on ditching it, hoping the ribbon was the only thing "the friend" had seen.

"SO YOU ARE WEARING THE RIBBON. GOT IT! WINK WINK! HAVE A NICE DAY! Oh, and be careful!" he then whispered into the phone before hanging up.

"I'm guessing he was warning me to ditch this thing." Frisk said as she took off her ribbon. She then had an idea and put on the tutu, then took out her apron and tried to use it to cover her face and upper body. It wasn't really attached, so its powers would be useless, but at least it might cover her clothes and head so Undyne couldn't see her.

 _ **"You look absolutely ridiculous."**_ Chara told her.

 _"Safety is more important than fashion. Better I look like an idiot than be killed."_ she pointed out, though she had to agree with Chara that she did look ridiculous.

The two of them then entered a doorway into a beautiful room, many echo flowers planted on the ground while crystals glittered on the ceiling, looking like a sky full of stars.

"Wow, it's amazing here." Frisk whispered as she looked up, admiring the sparkling crystals on the ceiling.

"A long time ago, monsters whispered their wishes to the stars. If you hoped hard enough, all your wishes would come true. Now all we have are these sparkling stones on the ceiling." an Echo Flower whispered.

Chara gazed at the ceiling, remembering a time, only a few days before her death, when she and Sans had come here to have a picnic and hang out, though she tried to keep her thoughts from Frisk this time.

...

_The two of them lay on their backs in the wishing room, staring up at the ceiling, just enjoying being with each other._

_"You should make a wish. I know these aren't stars, but it still counts." Sans told her._

_Chara closed her eyes. **I wish we'll succeed and everyone will be happy on the surface.**_

_Sans had his eyesockets closed, wishing too._

_"So what'd you wish for?" she asked him after a minute._

_"I can't tell you or won't come true." he said with a grin, then looked suddenly thoughtful and a tiny bit nervous. "Chara...I...I was wondering...Um..." He fidgeted a minute before looking up. "Um...What were the stars like?" he blurted out, looking embarrassed._

_"They were one of the best things about the surface, besides the flowers." she told him. "Little pinpricks of light in a dark black sky, and sometimes you could even see shooting stars. They were awesome."_

_"What were they like?" he asked._

_Chara tried to figure out how to explain shooting stars to someone who had never seen them before. "It's like... imagine seeing one of those twinkling lights there zoom across the expansive sky in a trail of light. They didn't happen often, but when they did, they were beautiful." She smiled at the thought, then heard Sans mumble something. "Hmm?"_

_He blushed. "Um...nothing. Just...got lost in my...SKULL." Sans looked up at the sky again. "Someday, maybe we'll even get to see them. Paps would get a kick out of that." He took a deep breath. "Um, Chara?"_

_"Yes?" she asked him._

_He was about to try to speak again when his phone went off and he answered it. "Hello? Oh hey, dad." He sighed softly as he listened. "But I- All right. I'll be home soon. Love you. Bye." He hung up with another sigh._

_"That was Dad. I've-I've got to get home. Dad says I need to get home and get to bed early because we're going to go to the dump tomorrow for parts, then spend a few days researching and starting on some special project for the king. Dad's being pretty hush hush about it, so I don't know what it is. Hopefully it won't be a ROYAL disaster like last time when the magic transfer machine exploded."_

_"I remember that. It made a KING-sized mess." Chara joked before sobering._ _"I'll miss you." she said softly, and though he didn't know it, she was talking about a bigger separation than the trip._

_He gave her a hug. "I'll miss you too, Chara. But I'll bring you back an awesome souvenir from the dump. Cool stuff is always falling down there. Though I'll have to..."_

...

 _"...don't see a door. Do you know how to get out of here? Or did I go the wrong way again?"_ Frisk had seen only a few small flashes of this memory, but not the whole thing this time as Chara had been trying very hard to keep her out and was starting to get better at it.

Chara snapped out of it. _**"Just tap on the far wall. There's a passageway there."**_

_"Thanks."_

A few minutes later, Frisk and Chara exited the room, Frisk covered in soap suds from an overenthusiastic Woshua who had decided to clean her.

Chara couldn't help but laugh at her. _**"You look even more ridiculous than before."**_

 _"Don't remind me."_ she thought as she wiped the soap off as best she could with her apron. She then noticed a sign and walked up to it, hoping it was a map or directions. Squinting at the ancient writing, she read, "The War Between Monsters and Humans?" She then moved to the next sign. "Why did the humans attack? Indeed, it seemed they had nothing to fear. Humans are unbelievably strong. It would take the soul of nearly every monster...just to equal the power of a single human soul." She blinked. "Really?"

 _ **"it's true."**_ Chara told her. _**"I don't know the reason why. Sans tried to explain it to me, but it was a bunch of scientific jargon and I was completely lost."**_

Frisk nodded. _"Science isn't my strong suit either. I only did slightly better on it than math at school."_ She went to the next sign. "But humans have one weakness. Ironically, it is the strength of their soul. Its power allows it to persist outside the human body, even after death." She walked over to the second to last one. "If a monster defeats a human, they can take its soul. A monster with a human soul. A horrible beast with unfathomable power." She shivered. "I won't lie. That is kind of scary." She looked at the illustration of a powerful looking shadowy monster, an aura radiating from it with two glowing souls on its chest, then turned to look at Chara. Ironically, the ghost had a haunted expression on her face as she stared at the illustration as well. _"Hey, you okay?"_

Chara nodded, but the answer was actually a big fat no, and Frisk knew it.

 _"I know something's bugging you. Do-Do you want to talk about it?"_ Frisk asked gently.

She shook her head. _**"No."**_

Frisk was concerned, but didn't press. It probably wasn't any of her business and Chara would tell her when she was ready. _"All right. I'm here if you need me."_

**_"I know."_ **

Still puzzling over what she had read and Chara's strange behavior, Frisk stepped onto a platform in the water, then nearly fell off when it started moving. "Whoooa!" She pinwheeled her arms and managed to catch her balance as the raft took her across the water and onto a bridge, which she immediately jumped onto.

The light cast strange shadows on the ground and Frisk started feeling nervous, like there were eyes staring at her. It was quiet...too quiet. Cautiously, she kept walking.

A sudden flash of neon blue in the corner of her eye made her jump back suddenly, and just in time as a blue spear went flying into the bridge right in front of her, narrowly missing her head. She heard the clanking of armor and saw Undyne coming out of the shadows.

 _ **"RUN!"**_ Chara screamed, but Frisk didn't need to be told twice, or even once as her feet were already moving as she ran down the bridge, spears flying after her. **_"Right! Left! No, don't run that..."_** Frisk cried out in pain as a spear impacted with her arm, the sharp point tearing through her skin. She then dodged another three, trying to zig-zag so she'd be harder to hit, but ended up running right into a spear, which impaled itself deeply into her shoulder, though the spear itself, being made of magic, vanished after a few seconds, leaving only the bloody wound behind. Before she could even register the pain, more spears came flying at her. She dodged them at Chara's warning, but barely.

She took a sharp turn on the bridge, running onto a different path. Undyne had to adjust and missed her, thankfully. Blood was running down Frisk's arm, but she barely felt the pain of her wounds now as adrenaline took over her body. It had only been a few minutes, but it felt like hours until she got to the end of the bridge, where there was a large section of tall grass. She quickly crawled into it and got as low as she could, crouching on the ground with her arms covering her head as she heard spears rushing over and past her. She then heard the dreaded clanking of Undyne's armor and the sound of metal boots crunching through the grass. She held her breath. She couldn't move or Undyne would spot her. The sound of clanking armor grew closer and closer, and all Frisk could hear was that and her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Undyne's outline was very close now and she saw the warrior reach out to grab...

The same monster kid from earlier. Apparently, he had been hiding in the grass...again. Undyne nearly dropped him in shock, but set him down relatively gently, horrified at what almost happened.

"What the...Kid, I could have impaled you! Why were you...Where's the...Look, kid, just go home. It's dangerous out here." Undyne then turned and walked away. She wasn't going to attack the human where an innocent child might get caught in the crossfire.

Only when she knew Undyne was truly gone did Frisk poke her head out of the grass and look around, shaking. She pressed her apron to her damaged arm and shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding. Thankfully, the wounds weren't quite as deep as she had feared, though they were still pretty bad.

"Oh man, did you see that?" a sudden voice asked and Frisk jolted backwards before realizing it was just the monster kid again. "Undyne just...TOUCHED ME! I'm never washing my face again! Oh man, are you unlucky! If you were standing just a LITTLE BIT to the left...!"  He couldn't see her injuries as she was still mostly hidden in the grass, but if he had known, he would have realized that she had been lucky rather than unlucky that she hadn't been standing in that spot.   Thinking she was simply another monster kid he hadn't met yet and that the upset expression on her face was due to the fact that she hadn't got to meet Undyne face to face, he decided to try to comfort her. "Yo, don't worry! I'm sure we'll see her again!" 

"That's what I'm afraid of." Frisk said, but he was gone. Frisk dug into her backpack, finding some of the bandages Papyrus had given her and doing her best to treat her wounds. She couldn't stop shaking, overwhelmed with terror. She had nearly died today.

 _ **"Frisk, are you okay?'**_ Chara asked and Frisk just burst out into hysterical laughter, tears in her eyes. _**"Sorry, bad question."**_

 _"I almost died,I don't wanna die,who's going to take care of Tina if I die..."_ was going on in a constant loop in Frisk's thoughts.. She could barely breathe, couldn't get the pain of spears impaling her body or the cold look in Undyne's eyes and the menacing clanking of her armor getting closer and closer out of her mind. She wanted out of here, she wanted her sister and Toriel and Sans and Papyrus. Chara was looking at her worriedly and Frisk tried to calm herself down for her friend's sake, but she was still so scared. She told herself to stop being a coward and tried to get up, though she felt a little weak and dizzy. _"I'm okay."_ she told Chara, but it was just as much a lie to her own ears as it was to the ghost's.

Chara opened her mouth to speak, trying to think of something to reassure her friend even though she had no clue what to say, but then Frisk's phone rang.

Frisk fumbled for it with her good hand and answered it. "H-Hello?" she said, her voice shaking from shock, though she tried to stay calm for whoever was on the line.

"HELLO HUMAN! THIS IS PAPYRUS! REMEMBER WHEN I ASKED YOU ABOUT CLOTHES? WELL, THE FRIEND WHO WANTED TO KNOW...HER OPINION OF YOU IS VERY...MURDERY."

"I-I know." Frisk told him, making a soft noise of pain when she moved her injured shoulder the wrong way.

Papyrus heard her. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, HUMAN? DID SHE HURT YOU?" he asked, very concerned now. He had tried to throw Undyne off the human's trail by making a bunch of stuff up, but he WAS a very bad liar...

Frisk winced again. "A-A little, but..."

This sent Papyrus into full on panic mode. "YOU ARE HURT?! IS IT BAD?! ARE YOU OKAY?" He was getting more and more freaked out. "SANS! SAAAANNS! THE HUMAN'S HURT!"

"Papyrus, it's not that..." Frisk tried to reassure the tall skeleton but he was still calling for his brother.

"What happened, bro?" Frisk heard Sans ask.

"I TRIED TO KEEP THE HUMAN SAFE FROM UNDYNE BY LYING BUT I'M A BAD LIAR AND THEY GOT HURT AND THEY MIGHT BE HURT BAD AND WE GOTTA HELP THEM, SANS, AND...AND..."

"Settle down, bro, I'll get her. Kid, where are you?"

"I-I'm in a patch of grass...past a bridge...past the Wishing room..."

"Okay, kiddo, I know where that is. Just stay there and stay on the line with me. I'm coming to get you." Sans told her. Frisk appreciated his calm, especially since she was freaking out internally over nearly dying and she could still hear Papyrus freaking out as well.

Frisk stayed on the line as Sans kept talking to her, telling her bad jokes to keep her calm and talking. Despite her fear, she felt damn grateful to have people like Sans, Papyrus, Chara, and Toriel be there for her in this crazy world. She would have literally died without them.

But she knew one other thing.

Getting back home to her sister was going to be much, much harder, and more deadly, than she had thought.

...

_"Well, looks like a certain someone's just had her first encounter with Undyne the Undying. That piece of sushi's not gonna stop until the kid's dead, and I know the kid knows it too. Those two trashbags may be trying to help her, but they can't protect her forever. There WILL be a fight, and likely, someone's not coming out of it alive. Let's see how long the kid sticks to her pacifist vow when survival instinct takes over."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's just say the stars weren't even close to what Sans wanted to talk to Chara about the flashback.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the Undyne encounters in this scene. Let's just say the sins of two of the other souls that fell affect how our human heroine is viewed in Undyne's eyes.
> 
> And yes, Undyne knew Chara and Asriel. Their deaths are partly why she now hates humans, along with the routes two of the six human souls who fell before Frisk took. She's not the only one who can decide whether to kill or not.


	8. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After being injured by Undyne, Frisk is taken back to Sans and Papyrus's house for recovery and training. What will she learn about Undyne's past there? And what will the brothers learn about Frisk?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

It didn't take more than a few minutes for Sans to reach Frisk, especially with his warping abilities.

"Hey there, kiddo." He looked her over, noticing the bloody bandages on her arm and shoulder. "Ouch, she really did a number on you, huh? We'd better get you to Snowdin and heal those up."

"I'm fine." she said automatically.

Sans didn't look convinced, and neither did Chara. "Look, kid, you don't want to end up encountering Undyne again injured and with," His eye glowed briefly as he checked her HP. "Seven out of twenty HP, do you?"

Frisk couldn't help it. She shivered.

"I didn't think so." He held out a hand to her. "Now let's get going before Paps goes out of his skull worrying or Undyne catches us, ok?" She nodded and took it and he warped her to his house, and in his slightly sleepy state as Papyrus had woken him up from a nap when calling for him to help the human, they ended up landing on the roof rather than in the house as Sans had intended.

Papyrus was waiting outside anxiously and heard them arrive. He looked up. "SANS, HUMAN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE ROOF?!"

Sans was hanging off the rain pipe by his hoodie. "Oh you know, just hanging around." he joked, then wiggled free, dropping down and trusting his brother to catch him. "We decided to drop in."

Papyrus groaned as he reached out to catch Sans. "YOU KNOW WE CAN'T EASILY REPLACE THE **SHIN-** GLES!" he scolded, accidentally putting too much empathisis on the first syllable when Sans landed in his arms. His eyes then widened. "SANS! LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME!"

Sans wiped an imaginary tear from his eyes. "I'm so proud, bro."

Papyrus just clutched his skull as Frisk giggled from the roof, the skele-bros' familiar banter helping to soothe her earlier fear. Papyrus muttered something to Sans about not corrupting the human, then gently lifted Frisk off the roof with blue magic. She wobbled a bit dizzily and he gently steadied her. His eye sockets widened as he saw her injuries...and also what she was wearing.

"OH NO! HUMAN, WHY ARE YOU WEARING A TUTU?!" Papyrus asked in a panic as he led her inside. "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE WEARING A TUTU! OH NO, THIS IS HORRIBLE! I DIDN'T THINK ANYONE WOULD WEAR THAT DUSTY OLD THING!"

Frisk was slightly hurt. "Papyrus, I know it's not exactly fashionable, but..."

"NO, NO, THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" Papyrus said quickly. "IT LOOKS VERY NICE ON YOU, BUT WHEN UNDYNE ASKED ME WHAT YOU WERE WEARING, I LIED AND SAID YOU WERE WEARING A TUTU! IT WAS THE FIRST THING I COULD THINK OF SINCE I FOUND IT A FEW DAYS AGO WHEN I WAS EXPLORING! I DIDN'T THINK ANYONE ELSE WOULD FIND IT, LET ALONE PUT IT ON!"

"Wow, Paps, you're TUTU bad at lying." Sans joked weakly as he sat Frisk down on the couch and began gently removing the bandages to check her wounds.

"SANS, IT'S NOT FUNNY! THE HUMAN GOT HURT!" Papyrus yelled and even Chara had to agree with him at the bad timing of that joke.

Sans looked sheepish. "Sorry, bro. Just trying to lighten the mood." he said.

"Sorry, Papyrus. I guess I misunderstood what you were trying to say. I thought you were telling me to ditch the ribbon, so I took it off and tried to cover my clothes with the tutu and my apron." Frisk said. Papyrus still looked a little guilty, so she patted his arm with her good one. "Hey, don't worry. I'm okay now."

Her words were somewhat contradicted when Sans finished unwrapping the bandages, showing the deep gouges the spears had made in her arm and shoulder, which thankfully had mostly stopped bleeding due to the healing power of the bandages, but still looked nasty. Both brothers and Chara winced at the sight and Papyrus ran to get her something to restore her HP as Sans gently examined her wounds. His hands glowed with healing magic and he placed them gently over her injuries, the magic flowing into her and causing a tingling sensation as the wounds healed and closed.

"Thanks, Sans." Frisk told him gratefully.

"No problem, kid. Now what happened exactly?" Sans asked.

Frisk shivered at the memory. "I was crossing the bridge when Undyne appeared and started throwing spears at me. I managed to get away, but in the process, I accidentally zigged instead of zagged and got hit by a few spears. I-I hid in the tall grass near the bridge, and she almost found me, but this Monster Kid who really likes her was hiding in the grass, and she found him instead. Thankfully, she grabbed him instead of firing her spear...And she was pretty upset because she almost hurt him and took off." She shivered again, realizing how lucky both she and the monster kid had been.

"Undyne always looks after her fans. And all the innocents here. Unfortunately, she doesn't realize you're not someone she needs to give a bad time to."

"BUT SHE WILL!" Papyrus chimed in as he came in with some Spider Cider for Frisk and handed it to her. She thanked him as she took it. " YOU'RE WELCOME! AND DON'T WORRY! THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS A PLAN ON HOW TO SOLVE THIS! I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU AND UNDYNE FRIENDS!"

Frisk had just taken a sip of cider and nearly choked as he said this. She let out a sad laugh at Papyrus's remark, not believing his plan could ever happen. "I don't think Undyne will ever want to be friends with me, Papyrus. She hates me and wants me dead." Not to mention that she herself didn't want to be friends with someone who hated her and wanted her dead...

"HUMAN, UNDYNE DOESN'T HATE YOU!" Frisk looked at him disbelievingly and tried not to laugh hysterically in his face. "OKAY, MAYBE SHE KIND OF DISLIKES YOU RIGHT NOW, BUT IT'S NOT ANYTHING PERSONAL! ONCE SHE ACTUALLY GETS TO KNOW YOU AND UNDERSTANDS YOU'RE NOT A KILLER, SHE'LL LIKE YOU, I PROMISE!"

"Why does she think I'm a killer? I haven't done anything to anyone! Why-Why does she want me dead? W-What did I do wrong?" Frisk asked, frightened again. Tears were forming in her eyes. "I-I just want..."

Papyrus sat next to her and pulled her into a hug which she returned, holding onto his scarf for dear life as she cried. Sans sat on the other side of Frisk and awkwardly rubbed her back.

 _ **"Frisk, it's going to be okay. These two boneheads aren't going to let anything happen to you."**_ Chara told her as she sat on the other side of Sans. She wasn't sure what to say to comfort Frisk, so she decided to tease to make Frisk smile. _**"Hey, don't cry, two cute guys are comforting you! Though I call dibs on this one!"**_ She hugged Sans, even if she couldn't actually touch him. It did at least work at calming Frisk down though, who let out a soft snort as her tears slowed. Chara did have a feeling that Frisk would use this as teasing material later though...

For just the briefest second, Sans could have sworn he felt a pair of strangely familiar arms wrapping around him and felt flustered for some reason, but realizing there was absolutely nothing there, he just ignored it and went back to the situation at hand. "Kiddo, Paps is right, it's not personal and it's not anything you did wrong."

When Papyrus spoke, his voice was soft and serious again. "Human, a while ago before you fell, another human did who wasn't so nice. I wasn't there since Sans got really sick that day and I needed to take him home, but I did hear about it later. That human...they hurt a lot of monsters. I don't know what happened, whether the human was scared or angry or didn't have a friend to help them down the right path, but they decided to do violence instead of make friends. Undyne and King Asgore came running to the rescue, and right as the human was about to attack another monster, Undyne jumped in between them and she got really hurt. Then the human started to go after her, but King Asgore stopped them. Undyne recovered and I helped take care of her, but she lost her eye, and-and a lot of monsters lost a lot more."

Frisk covered her mouth in shock, feeling like she was about to throw up. Chara was clenching her fists angrily at the thought of a human murdering innocent monsters and trying to kill her hero. If Frisk had been looking at Chara rather than Papyrus, she would have seen only melting sockets where her friend's brown eyes once were, and the most horrifying grimace on her face. But thankfully Frisk didn't see it at all.

"Oh god, that's awful...I'm so sorry..." Frisk whispered. She understood now why Undyne was so intent on hunting her down. If someone had attacked her friends, well, Tina, Chara, Papyrus and Sans, she'd be wary, angry and scared too. Though she was still absolutely terrified of Undyne, she didn't hate her assailant any more.

"It's not your fault, human." Papyrus looked down. "I...I wish I'd known it was happening. Maybe I could have stopped that human and gotten them back on the right path, that way no one would have gotten hurt..."

It was Frisk's turn to comfort Papyrus now, hugging her friend tightly. Sans fidgeted guiltily. Papyrus didn't know, but Sans had spotted the yellow souled human on that horrible day years ago. He had scanned them with his magical eye, saw they were at level five, and immediately called Undyne, who had had Asgore visiting her at the time.

Her orders had been simple. "We're on our way. Get Papyrus and the other civilians out of there. Alert the other guards, then get to Snowdin. We may need to evacuate the area."

Sans had quickly found Papyrus and pretended to be sick. Thankfully, his brother had fallen for it and carried him home. When Papyrus was occupied making Sans his infamous spaghetti soup, Sans had teleported to Snowdin, just in time to see Undyne get shot in the eye by a bullet when she jumped in front of the fleeing Snowdrake child the human had been aiming for, and then Asgore kill the black haired, yellow souled human. Even injured, Undyne had gotten up and tried to help the others, though Asgore had forced her to lay back down.

Sans had done his best to help with the other injured, and when he teleported back home, had eaten Papyrus's horrible soup and had not told his brother about the incident. But while Papyrus didn't actually have ears, the younger skeleton was a good listener, and had heard about the attack from the other residents of Snowdin. Papyrus had immediately rushed off to comfort and help Undyne and all the others who had been hurt, doing everything he could to make things better like he always did.

Sans hated that he had made Papyrus feel guilty for not being there when that human attacked, but if this young red-souled human had been anything like Yellow Soul, he would have done it again, protected Papyrus at all costs.

Anything was better than his baby brother being turned into a pile of dust.

Thankfully, Red hadn't been like that, and Sans did not regret making the promise to the old lady at the ruins, especially not now as the kid sat there between them, comforting his little brother.

He'd make sure this kid stayed alive. He'd keep that promise he made.

...

"THANK YOU, HUMAN. AND DON'T WORRY. EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY. MY BROTHER AND I WILL HELP YOU. AND ONCE UNDYNE REALIZES YOU'RE NICE, SHE'LL STOP ATTACKING YOU AND SHE'LL BE YOUR FRIEND." Papyrus couldn't go back in time and save the ones lost, but he could help his friend now, and that's what he would do.

"Yeah, kiddo. Though we probably should train you some more. Undyne's been training for years, so she'd pretty much kick your butt in 2.5 seconds the way you are now."

"SANS!"

"It's kind of the truth, bro. Undyne's pretty brutal with those spears. I had to make sure the human got the POINT." At this moment, Sans felt like somebody had lightly swatted the back of his head. Maybe this wasn't the best time to make a joke...

 _ **'Really, Sans? Not the best time for a pun."**_ Chara sighed as she calmed down, withdrawing her hand and rolling her thankfully now normal eyes.

And Papyrus seemed to agree with the words he couldn't hear as he glared at his brother. "SANS, THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR ONE OF YOUR STUPID PUNS! THOUGH I AM GLAD YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING ACTIVE LIKE TRAINING THE HUMAN."

"Actually, it might be best if you train her, Paps. You've trained with Undyne and you know her style better than I do." Sans pointed out.

Papyrus thought about this. "HMM...A MOST EXCELLENT IDEA, BROTHER! HUMAN, I THE GRRREEAT PAPYRUS, SHALL TRAIN YOU! NYEH HEH HEH!" With that, he punched one arm into the air in a victory pose, which made Frisk smile despite her worries.

"You'll probably have to stay with us for at least few weeks, so we can either teach you enough so you won't die or Undyne settles down." Sans explained to her.

Frisk's eyes widened. "I-I really appreciate it, but-but I don't have that long. My little sister is at home waiting for me, and I've got to get back to her!" she explained in a panic.

"Kiddo, I get that you want to go back to your sis. I really do." Sans told her gently. "But you're not going to be able to if Undyne turns you into a shish kabob. You've got to be patient."

"But I've already been gone for so long and I told her I'd be back three days ago and what if she's hungry or sick or hurt and our parents don't..." Frisk babbled, barely aware of what she was saying.

The skeleton brothers exchanged concerned glances and Sans was about to question her when Frisk's phone rang and she fumbled for it and excused herself before answering it, accidentally putting it on speaker when she did. This time it was Toriel.

"Hello, my child. I've not heard from you in a little while. Are you doing all right?" Toriel asked her.

Frisk tried to figure out whether she should tell Toriel about what had happened with Undyne. She didn't want to worry her. "I'm all right now, Mom. I'm with Sans and Papyrus."

Sans was a bit confused at first about the human talking to someone she called Mom with the panic attack she had just a few minutes ago about her sister's welfare, and even more so since monsters could not get telephone or radio contact with the surface. Doctor Alphys had tried, as did Sans's father, but the magic in the barrier caused their attempts to fail. Then he realized two things. First, that was a monster phone. Second, he knew that voice.

It was the voice of the woman behind the door of the ruins. The voice of the former queen and Chara's adoptive mother, though he never did tell his knock-knock joke partner that he recognized her voice. Of course it should have been obvious to him that the kid knew her as the request for him to protect and watch out for any humans who had come through the door had come only a few hours before he had seen the young human wander towards Snowdin.

"Did you have any trouble?" Toriel asked.

"A little, but the guys helped me out." Frisk admitted.

Toriel sighed with relief. "Good. I'm glad you're safe, little one. You will be careful, won't you?"

"Yes, mom." she promised.

"HELLO, HUMAN'S MOM!" Papyrus called out.

"Oh, hello, Papyrus." Toriel answered before thinking.

Papyrus's eyes widened. "WOWIE! HOW DOES YOUR MOM KNOW MY NAME?"

"Actually, Pap, that's my friend from the ruins. I told her about you." Sans said, covering for Toriel's goof. "Hey, kiddo, can I speak to her for a moment?"

"Sure." Frisk said, handing over her phone.

Sans took the phone and turned it off speaker. "Knock, knock...well, I guess that joke doesn't work too well on the phone."

Toriel chuckled softly. "Who's there?"

"Dishes."

"Dishes who?"

"DISHES Sans. How ya doin', old lady?"

She laughed. "I'm fine, Sans." She then got serious. "Is my child really okay?"

"The kiddo did have some trouble with one of the other residents and she's spooked, but she's fine now." he told her honestly.

"Thank you for keeping an eye out for her."

"No problem." He then lowered his voice as he moved out of earshot of the others. "So why is the kid so worried about her little sister?"

Toriel sighed softly. "I do not believe their life on the Surface was very happy. She didn't tell me exactly what happened, but from what little she did blurt out, I don't think their parents treated either of them very kindly, if they're even still around. She was much too thin when I found her. The only reason she left the ruins was for her sister's sake."

Sans sighed too. "Oh geez..." This was going to be more difficult than he had thought. For Papyrus, he'd move heaven and earth to get back to his brother in the same situation, and he had no doubt it was the same here. He knew the human could not and would not stay the length of time needed to get her completely ready to defend herself against Undyne, not when time was of the essence with a sister in a possibly dangerous living situation. Even if it would be very risky for her to travel with limited training with the warrior hunting her down.

They'd need to teach her as much as they could in a very short time frame if he and Papyrus couldn't reason with Undyne. And try to keep the kid and Undyne as far apart as possible.

And pray the confrontation didn't happen anyway.

"I will do what I can to help her on her journey." Sans promised and he meant it.

"Thank you, Sans. It makes me feel better that she is not alone."

The two spoke for a few more minutes before Sans handed the phone back to Frisk. Papyrus, thinking Toriel was Frisk's real mom, innocently asked her to take care of the human's sister.

"Papyrus, she's...well, she's not my birth mom. Whenever I fell in the ruins a few days ago, she saved me and took care of me. I-I call her Mom, because she's like a mom to me." Frisk explained softly as Toriel tried to figure out how to explain just that to Papyrus.

"OH." Papyrus explained. He was still a bit confused, but didn't interrupt as Frisk was talking to Toriel again. He decided to ask her about it later.

...

After Frisk had finished talking to Toriel, Papyrus enthusiastically led her outside for training. He tossed her a bone that was long enough to imitate one of Undyne's spears and could be used as a shield. She caught it awkwardly, nearly dropping it and held it in front of her.

"HOLD IT MORE LIKE THIS, HUMAN." Papyrus told her, adjusting her position so she held it in front of her close to her body and at an angle, protecting her chest, stomach, and throat, then showing her how to adjust her grip to give her more control and ease on the painful recoil vibrations when the bone would be hit. Once she was ready, he stepped back and started slow by firing a bone at her, which she managed to block.

He did it again, then fired a surprise bone at her leg while she was blocking the first, and it hit her. She winced, but remained standing.

"ARE YOU OKAY, HUMAN?" he asked and Frisk nodded. "GOOD, BUT YOU GOTTA BE QUICK. HERE, THIS IS WHAT UNDYNE TAUGHT ME TO DO." He took a crouching, fluid stance that would allow her to shift her weight more quickly and easily and Frisk attempted to copy him, needing to make a few adjustments before finally getting it right. Papyrus sent a few more bones at her and she found out that she was able to move a little more quickly and was able to block more of them, though she was inexperienced and still got hit by some.

Frisk improved, but slowly, over the next few hours, and Papyrus soon decided to show her Undyne's special trick. When Papyrus sent out blue bones to imitate Undyne's yellow spear attack, where the spears would hit from the opposite direction that they were thrown, it really threw Frisk off, especially when coupled with the normal white ones, and she took a lot of damage from this attack, even with Chara warning her when the spears got close.

"I'm fine, Papyrus." Frisk protested when Papyrus made her sit down and take a break.

"HUMAN, BREAKS MAY BE BORING, BUT THEY ARE NECESSARY TO GET YOU RESTED AND READY FOR THE NEXT CHALLENGE. EVEN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TAKE THEM. SOMETIMES. NOT AS LONG AS MY LAZYBONES BROTHER DOES THOUGH. HE WOULD NAP ALL DAY IF YOU LET HIM."

Frisk smiled, but was still worried about her training. She wasn't the best at blocking and Papyrus had kicked her butt with the last move, even though she could tell he was going easy on her as to not really hurt her.

 _ **"Frisk, you've only been at this a few hours. You'll get better."**_ Chara told her. _**"You're not going to be perfect right away."**_

 _"I kind of need to be or I'll end up dead."_ Frisk sighed.

Papyrus noticed Frisk's expression. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, HUMAN?"

"Yeah." she told him. He looked unconvinced and she decided to tell him the truth. "I'm just worried about getting this block right."

"IT CAN BE HARD, BUT I KNOW YOU CAN GET IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU!" he told her. He thought for a few minutes. "HMM, WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD WAY TO TEACH IT TO YOU...I KNOW! I'LL JUST CALL UNDYNE TO HELP US WITH THIS! SHE'LL SURELY BE GLAD TO HELP!" It was pretty much an automatic response for him to call Undyne if there was trouble.

He reached for his phone and was about to call Undyne before he remembered that he was training the human because Undyne had a kind of murdery opinion of her right now.

"Papyrus, that's not such a good idea!" Frisk said quickly when she saw Papyrus go for his phone. "Undyne wants to kill me; she's definitely not gonna want to train me and I don't want you to get in trouble too!"

"OH. OH YEAH." Papyrus sighed as he put his phone away. "I GUESS IT WOULDN'T BE BEST TO TELL HER QUITE YET. SHE WILL LIKE YOU SOON THOUGH, I KNOW IT." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I KNOW UNDYNE CAN BE A LITTLE...INTENSE, BUT ONCE YOU GET TO KNOW HER, SHE'S REALLY, REALLY NICE. I KNOW THE TWO OF YOU WILL BE GREAT FRIENDS."

 _ **"If Undyne's still anything like how I remember her, he's right."**_ Chara told her. _**"You...still might want to keep training though."**_ she added reluctantly, remembering how fiercely her hero had chased Frisk.

Frisk nodded to both of them, hoping they were right. But could she make friends with someone who thought she was the enemy and wanted her dead? Would she be able to convince the warrior that she wasn't like the whackjob who had started murdering monsters?

Once both she and Papyrus were rested, they got back to training. After a while, she slowly did get a little better at blocking and wasn't hit quite so much, though she wasn't even close to perfect at it and she knew Undyne would be a lot more aggressive than Papyrus. Papyrus seemed happy with her progress though as he led her inside after training that night, promising to make his famous spaghetti bolognese for them.

...

Later, Frisk stood in the kitchen with Papyrus, helping him make spaghetti. It was the least she could do after all the guys had done for her. Plus, she liked cooking and it was fun spending time with Papyrus.

Chara had gone to the living room, saying she'd "leave the two lovebirds alone." To which Frisk had retorted that she just wanted to cuddle up to Sans again, which made Chara blush and then stick her tongue out at Frisk before leaving.

"HMM, MAYBE I SHOULD ADD A CUP OF CHILI POWDER TO GIVE THE BOLOGNESE SOME MORE FLAVOR. WHAT DO YOU THINK, HUMAN?"

"It'd probably be a little too spicy." Frisk admitted as she chopped some onions. "I once tried dumping some on mac and cheese to give it more flavor, and it didn't work too well. It turned out kinda yucky, though Tina and I ate it anyway. Might be better to go with just a pinch."

"HMM...YEAH, GOOD IDEA, HUMAN." Papyrus said as he added a rather large pinch of chili powder to the dish, then a big handful of oregano. Frisk sneakily spooned some of the oregano out of the bowl when he turned to stir the spaghetti in the pot.

"HUMAN, CAN I ASK YOU SOMETHING?" Papyrus asked, remembering what he had wanted to talk to her about earlier.

"Sure, what?"

"YOU SEEMED VERY FRIGHTENED AND WORRIED EARLIER WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT YOUR SISTER. IS EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT ON THE SURFACE?" he asked gently.

Frisk flinched and looked away. She had hoped they had forgotten about her panicked outburst.

Papyrus noticed her expression. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT, HUMAN?"

She nodded. "Y-Yeah."

Of course this didn't convince Papyrus. He knew something was wrong with his friend. "HUMAN, IF SOMETHING'S BOTHERING YOU, DON'T BOTTLE IT UP. IT'LL HELP YOU FEEL BETTER IF YOU TALK ABOUT IT. I'M A GOOD LISTENER...EVEN IF I DON'T HAVE EARS."

"I..." she said softly and looked away.

"IT'S OKAY, HUMAN. YOU CAN TELL ME ANYTHING! MY BROTHER AND I ARE HERE FOR YOU. YOU AREN'T ALONE, AND YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SCARED OF ANYTHING."

She finally looked up at him, saw his kind, nonjudgemental eye sockets looking back at her, and the dam she had been building for most of her life burst. "My parents...they...they don't care about me or Tina! They don't make sure we have food or clothes or anything. All-All they care about is how high they can get off drugs and partying with their friends!" She sounded bitter but she didn't care right now. "And my baby sister is alone on the surface with them and I don't think they'll even take care of her or make sure she's fed and...and what if one of their creepy friends decides to try something with her or she gets hurt?" She looked down. "I-I never should have left her alone but I needed to get that flower specimen and get us some money...and...and now I don't know when I'll get back or how or even how to get past Undyne and...and..." Tears were starting to fall again and she turned and swiped them away, hating feeling so weak. This was the third time she had broken into tears today. _Come on, idiot. Stop acting helpless like those fairy tale princesses. You're supposed to be tough and take care of yourself._ she thought to herself angrily.

Those thoughts stopped when she was gently turned and pulled into a warm hug by Papyrus. She hugged him back, burying her face in his scarf.

...

Out in the living room, Sans had been listening quietly rather than sleeping as the two had thought. This time he hadn't been worried about the human doing something, instead listening for the inevitable "OOPS." that happened right before a kitchen accident, fire extinguisher near him and at the ready.

But instead of a kitchen fire or the spaghetti exploding again, he heard the human breaking down and spilling her guts out to his brother. His eyesockets darkened as he listened. The situation HAD been as bad as he and Toriel had feared. Hopefully, physical abuse wasn't involved too, but even if it wasn't, this was bad enough. He remembered how the situation Chara had been in before the Underground had lowered her immune system and caused her to get sick more often than normal when they first met. And then finally she had gotten much better for a while with all the care the king and queen had given her, but suddenly, when he had been on a trip with his dad, she had become violently ill.

That time, she didn't pull through.

Human neglect and mistreatment had taken his best friend from him.

If there was anything he could do about it, he'd make sure his baby brother didn't go through the same heartache that he did.

Plus, he had to admit that this kid was starting to grow on him too.

He debated on going in to talk to the kid, but it was probably best to not let Papyrus catch him eavesdropping. Plus, his brother was definitely better at comforting than he was anyway. Though there was one thing he should probably do.

He very quietly teleported into the kitchen and turned the heat down on the spaghetti and the sauce. No need to add a kitchen fire to the troubles going on right now. He glanced at his brother and the kid, who hadn't noticed him, before warping back to the living room and sitting on the couch again with a soft sigh as he listened to the two.

...

"I'm really scared, Papyrus." Frisk said softly. "I-I've pretty much raised Tina since she was five months old and we've never been apart this long. I-I left, and I promised I'd be back as soon as I could, but-but I-I wasn't...I really let her down...What kind of big sister am I?" She let out a choked sob, which made Papyrus hug his friend tighter.

"YOU'RE THE KIND THAT TRIES THEIR VERY, VERY BEST, JUST LIKE SANS DOES." he told her, then softened his voice. "You took care of your sister, just like Sans did with me when our dad went missing. Sometimes things can go wrong, but it's not your fault. You tried just as hard as you could, and you have to understand that."

Frisk felt like he was talking to more than just her in this moment, but it was one part of his sentence that caught her attention. "Your-Your dad is missing?" she asked softly.

At the same time, Chara, who had overheard through Frisk's thoughts, asked in shock, _**"Dr. Gaster is missing?!"**_ She floated closer to Sans as she saw him stiffen at Papyrus's words and reached out to hug him again.

Papyrus nodded sadly. "There-There was a bad accident at the lab and he disappeared..."

In the living room, Sans flinched as Papyrus talked about their dad. The memories of the lab accident still hurt deeply and he and Papyrus both missed their dad so much. But then suddenly he felt the phantom arms around him again very briefly, and though he thought he was hallucinating or something, the touch somehow made him feel a bit better.

Frisk hugged Papyrus tightly, wanting to comfort him as Chara did the same for Sans in the living room. "I'm sorry. I'm so, sorry." Frisk whispered.

"It-It's okay. Sans is making a machine to help us find him. He's having trouble with it, but I know he can do it. Then we'll have Dad back, I know it." Papyrus told her. "And I'll be able to tell him how I'm training for the Royal Guard with Undyne and about Sans getting to open for Mettaton and about you and how we became best friends."

Frisk smiled softly. She loved Papyrus's eternal optimism. "And I'll tell Tina all about you when I see her again."

"THAT'S THE SPIRIT, HUMAN! IT'LL ALL BE OKAY FOR ALL OF US. AND I PROMISE, WE'LL HELP YOU GET HOME!" Papyrus told her. "AND DO NOT WORRY TOO MUCH, US LITTLE SIBLINGS ARE A LOT TOUGHER THAN WE LOOK! JUST LOOK AT ME!" Frisk nodded with a small smile, though she was still very worried about Tina, who was much younger than Papyrus.

"AND, HEY, MAYBE-MAYBE AFTER LOSING YOU, YOUR PARENTS WILL REALIZE THEY MADE A MISTAKE AND WENT DOWN THE WRONG PATH AND THEY'LL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR SISTER LIKE THEY SHOULD, THEN WHEN YOU GET HOME, THEY'LL BE THE PARENTS THEY SHOULD BE TO BOTH OF YOU."

Frisk looked down, part of her desperately wanting it to be true and the other part believing it never could be. She didn't say anything, instead looking thoughtful.

Papyrus recognized her expression, which was similar to the one his brother often wore when worried and trying to figure something out. "PEOPLE CAN CHANGE. MAYBE THEY WILL," he told her, trying to comfort her.

In the living room, Sans' permanent smile drooped a little more. Papyrus believed in everyone, and thought anybody could be good if they were given the chance. It was one of Papyrus's most admirable traits, but also one that got Papyrus taken advantage of. There had been a few assholes who had decided to do just that, taking advantage of Papyrus's good nature and friendship and getting him to do things for them while belittling him behind his back or even to his face. It was the main reason why Sans had been worried when Papyrus had asked the human on a date. He hadn't wanted his brother to get hurt again. Thankfully, this girl genuinely cared for his brother and he didn't need to worry about her, but sometimes people could be real jerks, and nothing you did could change that.

Frisk gave a tiny nod though she still looked unsure. People could change for the better, as she herself had after Tina was born, but they had to want to. Would her parents want to change? Would they want to be better for Tina, even though they never had before? Or would they..."

Papyrus's voice cut into her thoughts again. "AND IF THEY DON'T WANT TO CHANGE AND LEAVE THE PATH THEY'RE ON AND YOU DON'T FEEL SAFE AT YOUR HOME, YOU CAN BRING YOUR SISTER BACK HERE AND LIVE WITH US! OR YOU CAN LIVE WITH THE LADY YOU CALL MOM AND VISIT US A LOT! WE'LL ALL BE HAPPY TO HAVE YOU AND YOUR SISTER IN THE UNDERGROUND."

The simple words of support made Frisk feel better, and even if she wasn't sure it would be possible to bring her sister here, it felt like a huge burden had been lifted off her shoulders. She had best friends who actually really cared, and someone she could call Mom who actually acted like one; people she could feel safe with and open her heart around. She hugged Papyrus tightly, grateful for him just being there for her. "Thank you so much, Papyrus. You're the best friend anyone could ever ask for."

This made him grin as he hugged her back. "I KNOW. THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS STRIVES TO BE COMFORTING, PLEASANT, AND THE GREATEST FRIEND EVER."

She gave a little giggle at this. "Well, it definitely works."

"ARE YOU FEELING BETTER, HUMAN?" he asked.

"Yeah, thanks to you." she said, smiling. She then gave him a concerned look. "How about you?"

"I FEEL MUCH BETTER AS WELL. TALKING IT OUT REALLY HELPS."

"Just remember, Papyrus, I'm here if you need anythi..." She then smelled something burning. "Uh-oh...I think we forgot about the spaghetti!"

Papyrus's eye sockets widened. "OH NO, YOU YOU'RE RIGHT!" He rushed to the stove to check his pasta and the sauce, sighing in relief when he saw that it was only the noodles closest to the edge of the pan that had burnt as well as a tiny bit of meat in the sauce pan. "PHEW. LOOKS LIKE I DIDN'T TURN UP THE HEAT AS HIGH AS I THOUGHT. GOOD THING TOO OR WE MAY HAVE HAD ANOTHER STORY TO ADD TO OUR COLLECTION OF KITCHEN ACCIDENTS. AND IT'S READY! SANS! COME GET DINNER!"

"Bring it in here." Sans said lazily from the couch, pretending he hadn't heard anything as he technically wasn't supposed to be listening.

"I'M NOT BRINGING YOU DINNER, SANS! YOU GOTTA COME GET IT YOURSELF!" Papyrus yelled.

"Ugh...fiiinee." Sans muttered with playful fake annoyance and deciding to do something goofy to cheer the human and Papyrus up, used his blue magic to levitate himself and the couch cushion, making it float him into the kitchen. This sent Frisk, who was trying to set the table, into a fit of giggles and she nearly dropped the plates she was carrying before Papyrus took them from her.

"UGH, SANS, I HAVE NEVER SEEN SOMEONE WORK SO HARD AT BEING SO LAZY." Papyrus sighed, face-palming.

Sans grinned. "Heh, thanks, bro." Papyrus glared at him, but Sans could see the smile he was trying to hide. Their young human guest was still laughing, clearly feeling better, and he was glad he had at least been able to take her troubles away for a while.

And as he plopped the couch cushion down into his seat, he swore that for just a second, he could hear another familiar laugh that almost sounded like Chara's. But before he could really register it, it was gone.

...

It had been a great dinner. Though Papyrus was Papyrus and Frisk was no five star chef herself, the spaghetti had actually turned out practically edible, if a little heavy on the oregano thanks to Papyrus and the onions thanks to Frisk misreading the recipe. Sans had kept Frisk and unknowingly Chara entertained and Papyrus annoyed with his bad puns and jokes, and afterwards Frisk had helped Papyrus with the dishes. Sans had made her a bed on the couch, apologizing and saying that they were still getting the old "human capture zone" renovated into a guest room. Frisk reassured him that it was fine and thanked the boys over and over. She offered to pay them for the stay and food, but both the boys refused to let her pay for anything. Sans had actually jokingly whispered when Papyrus was in another room that he owed her for making the spaghetti edible that night.

But once the boys had went up to their own rooms, Frisk found herself unable to sleep. When she had been with Sans and Papyrus, she had been able to think about something other than the possible impending confrontation with Undyne, but now she couldn't get it out of her head.

 _ **"I'd ask if you were okay, but from the thoughts you've been sending me, I'm sure the answer is no."**_ Chara said, sitting on the edge of the couch. _**"Wanna talk about it?"**_

 _"I-I don't know what I'm gonna do if I come face to face with Undyne again."_ Frisk admitted. _"I mean, Papyrus was super sweet so I never had to be scared of him, most of the dog guards were really nice as well, and the other monsters we've faced were a bit rough sometimes, but didn't actually act like they wanted to really hurt me. Most of them either just got startled or needed something, but Undyne...she really hates me, and I don't blame her for being angry and wary after what Papyrus told me that psycho human did, but I don't know how to convince her I'm not an enemy she needs to take out. As soon as she saw me today she started throwing spears. I'm scared she won't stop until I'm dead..."_

 _ **"Frisk, I know you're scared of her. After what I saw today, I'm a little freaked out too, but...I think Papyrus is right. When I knew Undyne, the only thing bigger than her temper was her heart. I think once Undyne figures out that you won't hurt anyone, she'll let you go."**_ She took a deep unnecessary breath. _**"I want to show you something. It's the memory of when Undyne became my hero."**_ She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to project that specific memory to Frisk.

Frisk nearly gasped at the feeling of being sucked into a memory. With Chara purposely showing it to her, it was so much more intense. She felt like she was there. Like she _was_ Chara.

_She was wandering through the Capitol. She had felt overwhelmed and needed to be alone for a little while. Asgore, Toriel, and Asriel were so kind to her, always nearby to make sure she was okay, treating her like she was their family, even though she was human and not truly their child. They had taken her in and loved her like her human parents never had. It was so nice, the best thing she had ever had, but it was also scary._

_What if she messed up?_

_What if they figured out what her birth parents had, that she was a worthless freak, and they decided they didn't want her any more?_

_What if she let them in and they hurt her?_

_What if..._

_"Hey! Human scum!" she heard a voice yell and a fireball came flying at her. She screamed and ducked, and it barely missed her, coming close enough for her to feel the heat. She tried to run, but was grabbed roughly around the waist by a monster that looked like anthropomorphic tiger. She struggled frantically to get free._

_"It's the king'ssss brat. He thinkssss he can keep one of thosssse creaturessss assss a pet when they killed sssso many of ussss." a bright red lizard monster with a crest on its head hissed. It shot another fireball at her, burning her arm. She bit her lip, trying not to scream at the searing pain. She would not give them the satisfaction._

_"Well, we can use its soul to break through the barrier and tear through those humans. Show them all that WE should be the leaders, not that weak king who got us trapped down here in the first place." a lion monster growled._

_"D-Dad's not weak! And I haven't hurt anyone!" she protested as she struggled, trying to get free and grab something she could use to defend herself._

_"Shut up, you human freak!" the tiger monster growled and slammed her into a wall. Her head slammed against it and she saw stars._

_The lizard monster was about to send another, much larger fireball at her. She braced herself for the impact when a blue glowing spear came flying out of nowhere, striking the lizard and making it cry out in pain as it fell to the ground, the fireball dissipating before it could hit anything. Another spear struck the arm of the tiger monster, making it howl and let go of Chara, who quickly ran out of the alleyway._

_"Leave the king's kid alone." an angry female voice growled as a fish-like monster with blue scales and long red hair in a ponytail jumped from a nearby roof and in between Chara and her assailants, striking a heroic pose with a spear on her shoulder. She appeared to be an older teenager in age, and Chara recognized her as Undyne, a Royal Guard in training that Asgore had introduced her to a few days ago. Even with how scared she was, she couldn't help thinking how cool her savior looked._

_"Get out of our way, brat. We're taking that human's soul." the lion growled._

_"No you're not. You're not harming any member of the Royal Family while I'm around, especially not a child. Now, are you going to leave or do I have to kick your ass?" Undyne growled._

_The lion laughed as the other two got up. "You?! Little girl, you and your fellow guardsmen are every bit as weak as your king!" He rushed at her, about to strike her with claws extended, but she simply caught his wrist and threw him back into the other two._

_"Weak?! I'll show you punks who's truly weak!" she growled. The lizard monster shot a volley of fireballs at her and she grabbed Chara and leapt swiftly out of the way, firing three spears as she did, hitting each of their attackers, including the tiger while he was mid-leap. Once they were down, she formed a giant blue spear and stalked over to them, expression beyond pissed. They tried to get up and run, but a swipe of her spear turned their souls green and kept them from fleeing. "Oh no, you don't. I bet King Asgore would LOVE to hear how you tried to kill his kid and planned a coup against him." She ended up getting hit by a frantic swipe from the tiger, but didn't seem to care and knocked the three of them out._

_Once satisfied they weren't going to get back up again, she walked back to Chara. "Well, that was fun. You okay there, kid?"_

_"Y-Yeah...You-You saved my life. Thank you." Chara breathed as she looked up at Undyne with gratitude and admiration. She then noticed the shallow gouges on Undyne's shoulder from the tiger's claws and the burn on her side. "You're hurt!"_

_"Eh, that little scratch? Fhu hu hu, that's nothing, punk! Now let's get you back to New Home. The king and queen were worried sick and looking everywhere for you."_

_..._

"Whoa..." Frisk breathed as she came out of the memory. She rubbed her arm where Chara had gotten burnt, almost able to still feel it. That quickly disappeared, but the gratitude and admiration for Undyne still remained, which were mostly Chara's feelings, but also kind of her own as well. Undyne had saved her friend so long ago, and she had to admit that Undyne was pretty damn awesome, at least when those spears weren't aimed her way.

 ** _"Yeah, she saved my life that day. She and the rest of the Royal Guard brought me home, and took those guys in. Mom was even madder than Undyne at those assholes and even Azzy had to be held back from going into the jail cells and attacking them. And I'm not sure what Dad did, but I never saw those monsters again. Anyway, I've looked up to Undyne ever since that day. Asriel and I used to like to go watch her train, and she even taught us how to throw a training spear! It was really fun, even though I was incredibly bad at it, especially since I grabbed a yellow one by mistake and when I threw it, it came back at us and hit poor Azzy right in the butt. Thankfully, the tip was blunt, though he complained about it the rest of the day."_** Chara let out a small laugh before sighing softly. _**"I refuse to believe that side of Undyne is gone, especially after what Papyrus told us...I can't believe what that human did, actually I can with what I've known of humans..."**_

Chara's fists were clenched as she thought of what that human had done. Her bright brown eyes sunk back into their sockets, which darkened to black and started to "melt" again, her face distorting into a horrifying demonic looking grimace. She again looked like the ghost from the Grudge, and this time Frisk saw it all. She covered her mouth in horror as she bit back a scream, scooting instinctively away from Chara and nearly falling off the couch. Even though Frisk knew Chara would never hurt her, when that face turned her way to see what she was doing, she nearly peed herself.

Chara blinked in confusion when she saw the expression and her face started to return to normal. _**"Frisk, why do you look so freaked out?"**_ She then quickly turned to look behind her, thinking there might be something or someone there.

 _"Um, Chara, didn't you notice that creepy face you were making?"_ Frisk asked hesitantly.

_**"I know I was mad, but it wasn't at you, and my face isn't that creepy!"** _

_"For a minute, you had no eyes, black sludge was dripping from your sockets, and you were making this face like a vengeful spirit from a horror story. No offense, but that is kinda creepy."_

**_"I actually looked like that?"_** Chara asked, then grinned. **_"Cool!"_** Frisk gave her a weird look. **_"Hey, I've got to think of some plus side to being a ghost!"_**

Frisk rolled her eyes but did smile. Creepy face or no creepy face, at least it was still Chara underneath when she did that. _"Okay, but next time give me some warning when you feel like doing that. Now what were we talking about?"_

**_"Well, before I decided I wanted to stab that nutcase human somewhere painful, I was going to say that I think that you CAN become friends with Undyne."_ **

_"I'll try."_ Frisk promised. _"if I can get close enough without her throwing spears at me, I'll try to talk to her, and if I can't...that suit of armor is kind of bulky. Maybe I can outrun her or evade her."_

 _ **"Fair enough."**_ Chara said as Frisk curled under the covers.

...

Frisk woke early that morning. She heard Papyrus already up, humming a catchy tune to himself. Getting up, she brushed her hair back so it wasn't sticking up all over the place like it did every morning and wandered into the kitchen.

'OH, GOOD MORNING, HUMAN!" Papyrus said cheerfully when he saw her. He handed her a bowl of oatmeal with little dinosaur eggs in it and she smiled and thanked him as she took it. "YOU'RE WELCOME, HUMAN!" He sat down next to her with his own bowl. "SANS IS STILL ASLEEP, THAT LAZYBONES, BUT SINCE HE'S GOT THE LATER SHIFT, I'LL LET HIM SLEEP IN TODAY. I FIGURED YOU AND I COULD DO SOME TRAINING AFTER BREAKFAST."

"That sounds great. Thanks, Papyrus." Frisk said, smiling more. She couldn't help but smile around him. He was just too sweet and cute.

"NYEH HEH HEH! YOU'RE WELCOME, HUMAN! I'VE HAD A LOT OF FUN TRAINING YOU! HEY, ONCE WE GET THIS ALL SORTED OUT, MAYBE I COULD BE A TEACHER AND HELP UNDYNE TRAIN ALL THE FUTURE ROYAL GUARD MEMBERS!"

"I think you should! You'd be great at it." Frisk said with a smile, which made Papyrus grin, glad someone other than his brother believed in his dreams. When breakfast was over, he led her out for training, practically bouncing with every step.

...

"YOU'RE GETTING A LOT BETTER AT THIS HUMAN!" Papyrus praised her at the end of their session a few hours later. Frisk's reflexes had gotten a little quicker, and with the help of Chara's warnings, she was able to block more than she did yesterday, though she still did get hit some, especially during the parts when the bones hit in a different direction than they came. But she only had limited time as Tina was still waiting for her and she needed to get home. She hoped Papyrus and Chara were right and she could get Undyne to realize she wasn't going to hurt anyone, because Undyne's years of training definitely would beat out her few days if they got into one on one combat.

But Chara and Papyrus likely were right. They knew Undyne much better than she did. Undyne had been friends with Chara, who was human, so maybe it could be the same for Frisk.

And even Frisk, despite her fear of Undyne, could see Undyne's moments of gentleness, like how she had talked to Papyrus and how she had worried about Monster Kid.

It didn't mean she would let her guard down though. Not until she knew for sure Undyne no longer wanted her dead.

As she followed Papyrus inside, she realized she had left her backpack on the floor near the coffee table. "Oops, sorry Papyrus. I can't believe I left that on the floor in the way." she apologized as she picked it up, then suddenly realized it was much heavier than before. She peeked inside and saw some plastic containers of spaghetti, some hot dogs, and a little covered dish of Nice Cream.

"Wha?" she asked softly and looked up to Papyrus.

"I ACCIDENTALLY KNOCKED OVER YOUR BAG LAST NIGHT AND SANS AND I NOTICED YOU DID NOT HAVE A LOT OF FOOD IN IT. SO I DONATED SOME OF MY FOOD MUSEUM TO YOUR BAG! I KNEW A PASTA LOVER LIKE YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY SOME OF MY FINEST CREATIONS! AND SANS ADDED SOME OF HIS HOT DOGS TOO!"

"They're my new recipe for my hot dog stand in Hotland. I thought I could use you as a test subject." Sans said casually. "Plus, you don't want to run low on healing items, kiddo." Noticing Frisk's confused look, he clarified, "If you get hurt, the magic in monster food will heal you and bring your HP back up."

"AND EVERYONE LOVES NICE CREAM!" Papyrus added happily.

Frisk teared up. "Guys, this...this is so nice. You-You don't have to do all this for me... Thank you, but, please, at least let me pay you!" She pulled out her gold pouch and tried to give them most of her gold.

Papyrus pushed it back towards her. "NO, HUMAN, YOU'RE MY FRIEND AND YOU APPRECIATE MY SPAGHETTI! I WANT TO SHARE IT WITH YOU! AND IT'S NOT SHARING IF YOU PAY FOR IT!"

"Plus, I need someone to test my new hot dogs to see if they'll sell well at the stand. You see, Papyrus thinks peanut butter, ketchup, and pickle relish are gross on a hot dog, and I think they're great. I need SOMEONE to act as tiebreaker, because my bro has no taste buds."

"I DO SO! MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS HAS THE FINEST TASTE BUDS OF ANY MONSTER IN THE UNDERGROUND! HOW ELSE COULD I MAKE MY PASTA SO GREAT? AND PEANUT BUTTER DOES NOT BELONG ON A HOT DOG!"

 _ **"I've gotta agree with Papyrus, but I have to say neither of them has any taste buds."**_ Chara said with a laugh.

"I don't know, bro. I think you're...NUTS." Sans argued jokingly.

"SANS!" Papyrus yelled, annoyed at the dumb pun. Sans grinned and was about to make another one when Papyrus covered his mouth.

"WHAT MY BROTHER WAS TRYING TO SAY WAS THAT WE DON'T WANT YOU TO PAY US!" Papyrus told her.

Sans lightly swatted his brother's hand away. "Yeah, if you wanna buy more hot dogs, and I know you will because of how great they are, just come to my stand and you can buy all you want. They're a HOT commodity right now" Sans told her. "Just think of those ones in the bag as free samples if it makes you feel better."

"Are you sure?" Frisk asked them both, feeling bad about the boys giving her so much and her not giving them anything in return.

"Kid, we wouldn't say so if we weren't sure." Sans told her. "Now, I gotta get to my shift or Paps is gonna yell. You ready to go back to Waterfall, kiddo?"

Frisk nodded nervously.

Sans saw the expression and his eye sockets softened. "Don't worry, kid. I'll keep an eye socket out for ya." After Frisk thanked them both again for everything, then hugged Papyrus goodbye and told him to call her if he needed anything or just need to talk, Sans took her hand and the two teleported away.

...

_Ugh, I can't believe I had to listen to all that mushy crap for two days. I feel like I'm gonna puke. But I did learn something that may just make the game a bit more interesting and hopefully get little Miss Goody Two Shoes to see the light so things stop being so BORING. Let's see how a pacifist handles it when they're pushed to the brink. I know just how to get to her now..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teaser: As Papyrus tries to reason with Undyne and protect his new friend, Sans discovers that protecting a danger prone thirteen year old is definitely not easy. Undyne seeks to take the human's soul and wrestles with her own demons. And in the midst of it all, a yellow flower schemes.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed Undyne's backstory, Frisk opening up to Papyrus and finally telling someone rather than them just figuring it out on their own, and the small mention of Gaster, which WILL become important later in the story. Man, a chapter with a lot of dialogue and emotional scenes is hard to write.
> 
> And Sans is starting to sense Chara's presence now, even if he doesn't know what's going on. Wonder how long it will be before he figures out she's there...
> 
> Also, Sans, Undyne, and Asgore all believe Chara's illness was caused by damage to her body due to the abuse and neglect she suffered on the surface. They think humans caused the death of both royal children.
> 
> And Frisk is now slightly more prepared for the confrontation with Undyne, but the fight will NOT be easy. Frisk has only trained for a few days while Undyne has YEARS of training.
> 
> You will find more about Yellow Soul and the other souls later. Not all the human souls in this story were killed by Asgore, or even by monsters.
> 
> And as a hint for Yellow Soul's back story, they're not totally evil. Grief and rage can turn Justice into Vengeance and Vengeance can be aimed at the wrong targets. And when LOVE is added to the mix...


	9. Adventures In Waterfall, Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Frisk begins her journey through Waterfall again, Papyrus tries to find a way to reason with Undyne to protect his new friend as Undyne wrestles with her own demons and past. Chara learns something new about Frisk, and an impromptu concert brings new friends, and also reveals a startling surprise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment to let me know what you think! I'm always happy to chat and answer any questions you guys might have!

Frisk figured she must be starting to get used to teleporting, as this time she only stumbled a little when they landed at Sans's sentry station rather than almost falling on her face.

"Welp, here you are, kid." Sans told her. He looked her in the eyes. "You okay?"

"To be honest, I'm kinda scared." she admitted.

"You'll be all right, kiddo. I'll keep a socket out for you. And if you do run into Undyne and I'm not there to help, try outrunning and evading her. Her suit of armor is bulky and she won't be able to manuver as fast with it on. And if worse comes to worse and she catches up to you and stops you with her Green Soul ability, talk to her. Plead with her. Use that monster befriending charm of yours. Undyne can be pretty stubborn and hotheaded, but she's not made of stone. Talking to her might just work. You seem to be good at befriending everyone else. And...there was once a human Undyne cared about a lot."

"There was?" Frisk asked. She knew this already from her conversation with Chara last night, but she did want to hear the monsters' side of it. Maybe knowing it would give Chara the answers she needed and let Frisk know if the side to Undyne Frisk had seen in Chara's memories was still there, if there was any chance that Undyne might show her mercy if she knew Frisk wasn't a threat, if they could become friends like Papyrus and Chara thought they could.

"Yeah. Her name was Chara. She fell into the Underground like you and the king's son Asriel found her. He brought her home and the Royal Family took her in. I met her not long after she arrived here and we became friends. Actually, she was my best friend besides Paps. The two of us could exchange puns for hours. We would always hang out, have snowball fights, try to find treasures, think of new ways to mess around with our little brothers, make up these goofy adventures...She was great. And she really looked up to Undyne. Undyne was a Royal Guard member in training at that time and she saved Chara from some monsters that were going to kill her. Undyne was Chara's hero from that point on and Chara wanted to be just like her."

"So she was sort of like that monster kid I met?" Frisk asked, mostly to tease Chara, who stuck her tongue out at her.

Sans laughed, though it sounded sad. "Little bit, I guess. She wouldn't follow Undyne on her patrols unless Undyne told her she could, but she used to like to watch her train. Asriel did as well. And Undyne loved those two. She would get them to train with her, tried to teach Chara to throw a spear, took piano lessons with Asriel... She was sort of like a big sis to them, and when-when we lost them, she was devastated. We all were." He looked down, trying to control his emotions. Talking about Chara, about losing her, still hurt like hell.

Frisk felt tears prick at her eyes as she reached out and gently touched his shoulder. "I'm so sorry." she whispered.

"Thanks, kid." he murmured, then changed the subject, not wanting to talk about it any more. It was hard enough to open up to Papyrus, let alone a kid he had only known a few days. "Hey, you'd better get going before Undyne comes. She normally arrives here around noon on patrols."

Frisk nodded, not wanting the brothers to get in trouble if Undyne found out they were helping her, which she feared might cause them to lose their jobs at the very least. "All right. Thanks, Sans."

...

Heading to his own station, Papyrus waited just long enough that he could truthfully say that he had no idea where the human was before dialing Undyne's number. It was time for stage one in his plan, aptly named Get Undyne To Not Kill The Human.

"Hey, Papyrus!" Undyne answered and he could hear the sounds of Temmies in the background. "Any sign of the human in Snowdin? I've been patrolling Waterfall for two days and no sign of them." She sounded a little tired as she said this.

"UNDYNE, I CAN TRUTHFULLY SAY THAT THE HUMAN IS NOT IN SNOWDIN, AND THAT I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE." Papyrus told her.

"Dammit, they must be hiding out somewhere around here like a coward then." Undyne growled. "But I'll find them, I'll rip their soul out of their body, and then Asgore will be able to free us. That human won't get the chance to harm anyone!"

"U-UNDYNE, YOU DON'T NEED TO DESTROY HER! SHE'S GOOD. SHE WON'T HURT ANYONE." Papyrus protested.

"Papyrus, look, I know you don't like violence, but..." Undyne started, then there was a pause. When she spoke again, her voice was deceptively calm. "Papyrus. Did. You. Try to befriend. THE FREAKING HUMAN?!" Now she was starting to yell into the phone and Papyrus had to hold it away from his skull.

If Papyrus had sweat glands, he'd be sweating nervously right now. "UM, WELL..."

"PAPYRUS! You could get yourself fucking killed doing something like that! Don't you know how dangerous humans are? Don't you know how many people the human could have hurt?!"

"NO ONE'S BEEN HURT. EVERYONE'S SAFE. SHE'S NOT LIKE THAT OTHER HUMAN." Papyrus said soothingly. "SHE'S REALLY, REALLY NICE. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, KNOW SO FROM THE TIME I HAVE SPENT WITH HER! SHE..."

"Papyrus, the human is likely just using you and trying to get you to let your guard down!" Undyne yelled.

"NO, SHE'S NOT! I CAN TELL! I'M A GREAT JUDGE OF CHARACTER!"

"Papyrus, the last time you said that, you tried to befriend Jerry. Remember what happened?" Undyne sighed.

"I THOUGHT I COULD GET HIM TO BE A BETTER PERSON!" Papyrus protested.

"Look, I know you did, but sometimes you can't...Why am I even debating with you on this?! Papyrus, you KNOW how dangerous humans are! You remember what Yellow Soul did to all those monsters?! Are you going to let another human just wander around after that?! As a sentry, you're supposed to protect people!"

"I AM! I LET HER GO BECAUSE SHE'S NOT EVIL! SHE'S NOT YELLOW SOUL! SHE'S A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSON!" Papyrus's voice then suddenly softened. "Undyne, if another skeleton had done some bad things and hurt a lot of people, would you kill me because I'm a skeleton too?"

"No, of course not, Papyrus! But that's different!"

"How is it different?" he asked in the same soft, sad tone. "Because it doesn't feel any different to me."

"For one thing, I know you wouldn't hurt a fly. But humans are so much more dangerous. They'll attack anything they don't understand...even each other." This was said so softly Papyrus barely heard it.

"Everyone has the ability to be good. Please, Undyne, give her a chance. Just give her ten minutes." Papyrus lit upon an idea and his voice rose again. "I KNOW! WE CAN ALL HANG OUT AT YOUR HOUSE! WE CAN ALL DO THE COOKING LESSON TOGETHER! THAT WILL SHOW YOU SHE'S NICE! YOU TWO CAN BE FRIENDS! WE CAN ALL BE FRIENDS!"

"Papyrus, this is freaking ridiculous! I'm not going to befriend our enemy! That human is the enemy of all our hopes and dreams! Everyone here deserves to be free! With her soul, King Asgore can break the barrier and let us all see the surface! We'll take revenge for all the lives lost! We'll be able to give everyone a new life where they're not trapped down here!"

"And have our freedom be at the cost of an innocent life? The life of my friend?" Papyrus whispered, tears in his eyes. "Undyne, I was told we were made of love and compassion. Please, Undyne, please show that to her. No one has to die! Just..."

All he heard was a frustrated, angry growl and a click.

Papyrus stared at the phone for a few minutes, tears falling from his eye sockets, hurt at how his best monster friend was acting. Afraid for the safety of his best human friend.

But he was NOT going to give up.

He wouldn't let the human be murdered.

He would not lose the caring Undyne he knew to her own vengeance.

He would stop this.

Papyrus left his station and headed for Waterfall. As he did, he picked up his phone and called Sans to let him know what had happened.

...

Undyne snarled as she slammed the phone down. What the hell was Papyrus's problem?! Couldn't he see how important this was?!

No, because he was a freaking bleeding heart that just had to try to befriend every fucking thing that moved. Too pure and innocent for this damn world and not able to see that not everyone could be good.

Even when people were absolute jerks that used and insulted him. Like freaking Jerry, who had gotten Papyrus to do numerous favors for him, insulted Papyrus behind his back and to his face, and Papyrus had just let it happen and even took some of his insults like compliments! The only reason that "friendship" had ended was because Jerry had insulted Sans, and that's the one thing Papyrus wouldn't take.

And Papyrus had been upset not at Jerry for being a total asshole, but at himself for not being able to make Jerry a better monster.

So Undyne couldn't take anything Papyrus said about the human seriously. Likely the human was just using him as well, and would dump, or worse, attack Papyrus when he lost his use to them.

 _But what if he's right? What if the human IS truly his friend?_ a tiny part of her asked.

No! Papyrus is not right about this! Humans were dangerous and cruel creatures who hurt everything around them.

 _Chara wasn't like that._ the soft part of her whispered.

She slammed her spear into a rock, scaring a small group of Temmies. Why was she thinking like that?! As far as she was concerned, Chara had never been human. Chara had been the king's adoptive daughter, had loved monsters more than anything else. Chara hadn't liked humanity any more than Undyne herself did, and for good reason.

Because humans had hurt Chara badly, had abused her. When Chara had first arrived, she had been this terrified, wary little thing. Before Undyne had even seen Chara, Asgore had let Undyne know not to ask the young human girl about the surface as she had had a bad life on it. And after getting to know the young princess, Undyne saw the signs. The scars on Chara's back, how she always tried not to get in the way, how she flinched violently the few times Undyne had tried to give her a playful noogie or ruffle her hair, or even occasionally when Undyne would just move too fast or yelled too loud, even though Chara looked up to her and trusted Undyne not to hurt her. Eventually though, Chara had relaxed a little and a sarcastic sense of humor, a love of puns, and a desire to be a hero emerged(even if she did have terrible aim when it came to throwing a spear).

But after only five years in the Underground, Chara had suddenly and violently gotten sick and died. A grieving Asriel had absorbed her soul and used it to go through the barrier so he could bring her body to the golden flowers she had loved so much.

And humans had murdered him.

Sweet loving Asriel, who would give the biggest hugs, who would bleat, wriggle, and laugh when she playfully picked him up and gave him a noogie, who could play the sweetest tunes on the piano, who would give you the shirt off his back, had been slaughtered without mercy, even though he never hurt anyone or fought back.

Two of the closest ones she had to a brother and sister, and they were both dead in one day.

She hadn't been able to protect them. She couldn't punch an illness, and she could never had broken through the barrier, even with all her strength, to save Asriel.

She couldn't protect her friend and mentor, Asgore, from the grief of losing two children.

But she could help free everyone, like she knew Asriel and Chara would have wanted. And if Asriel's murderers were still alive, she'd make them PAY.

And all it would take was one more human soul.

She headed back from Tem Village, hoping to find the human after the fourteenth sweep.

Soon justice would be served.

She did not yet understand that there was a thin line between justice and vengeance and she was starting to take the path of Yellow Soul.

...

After leaving Sans's station, Frisk retraced her steps from the last few days, both she and Chara keeping a wary eye out for Undyne, though Chara was very quiet and morose from the information they had learned from Sans.

 _"You okay?"_ Frisk asked Chara.

 ** _"No. And no, I don't want to talk about it."_** Chara said just as Frisk was about to think that to her.

_"All right. But..."_

**_"I know. You're here for me if I need anything. Thanks."_ **

_"Are you reading my thoughts before I even get the chance to think them?"_ Frisk asked, trying to change the subject and cheer Chara up.

She got a tiny smile that didn't reach the ghost's eyes. **_"No, you're just predictable."_**

Frisk once again crossed the long bridge she had been at when Undyne attacked her the first time, still feeling very uneasy, the shadowy atmosphere not helping. Thankfully, Undyne wasn't there this time, and she crossed without incident, though she hid in the tall grass for a second as she checked for any sign of the armored fish monster. Thankfully, all she discovered was a table with a piece of cheese with a bright pink mystical crystal growing around it, an echo flower, and a mouse hole.

But sometimes total quiet is more unnerving, and Frisk was so on edge that when she entered another room and bumped into someone, she leapt back with a yelp. Thankfully, it was Sans and not Undyne.

"Easy, kiddo, just me." Sans told her gently.

Frisk managed to get her racing heartbeat to slow down. "Sans, what are you doing here? I mean, not that I'm not really happy to see you, but aren't you supposed to be at your post?"

He shrugged as he fiddled with a large telescope. "I'm on break. I'm also thinking about going into the telescope business. It's normally 50,000 G to use this premium telescope, but since I know you, you can use it for free. Howzabout it?"

She gave him a slightly suspicious look, similar to what Papyrus would give him when he thought he was up to something, but then she shrugged and nodded, peeking into the telescope. He smirked as he noticed her baffled look when she saw nothing but red, and when she pulled away from the telescope, there was a red ring around her eye. It took a few seconds for her to reach up and touch the paint on her face. Her fingers came away red and she pouted at him. He burst out laughing and for a second, he thought he heard another faint laugh nearby. He looked around, saw nothing, and shrugged before turning back to the kid. "What? You aren't satisfied? Don't worry, I'll give you a full refund." She glared at him, but he could see the corners of her mouth turning up and some of the tension leaving her shoulders. He grinned. "Aww, don't give me that look. You're smiling."

"I am and I hate it." she replied playfully, copying what she had heard Papyrus tell him when they first met. A real smile spread across her face. She then said goodbye to him and moved on.

Once she was out of earshot, he sighed. In truth, illegally charging people to use the telescope was definitely not why he was there. Papyrus had called him up, pretty much in tears, telling him that he had called Undyne and tried to reason with her, but she wouldn't listen. Sans had reassured his brother, telling him Undyne was likely just in a bad mood from constantly patrolling for a few days and that she'd see reason once she cooled off, and that he would keep an eyesocket on the human to make sure the kid was okay until then. This calmed down his little brother, who said he was coming to Waterfall to try again to reason with Undyne.

So now Sans was on human guard duty until one of them could get it through Undyne's thick skull that the kid was no threat. And he'd need to do it without alarming the kid. She was wound up tighter than a spring already, and if she thought Undyne would kill her no matter what she did, she might wind up fighting Undyne out of fear and self preservation, and not only would that DEFINITELY make Undyne see her as a threat, but someone could get killed.

It was better to keep watch over the kid and keep her and Undyne as far apart as possible for now. And thankfully, most of the denizens of Waterfall were fairly peaceful, so as long as he kept her away from Undyne, everything should be okay. How much trouble could watching one small human be?

...

After letting some very weird and creepy onion-shaped kid know that a star was a giant glowing ball of gas(she thought at least), you couldn't touch it, you couldn't eat it, and she was definitely NOT a star, Frisk went down a small wooden bridge into the next room. She admired how the crystals on the ceiling and the glowing water made the ground sparkle, little white flashes of light against black ground. She was feeling a little better, and by the laughing she heard beside her, Chara seemed to as well.

 _ **"I still can't believe you fell for the old "red paint on the telescope" gag."** _ Chara chortled.

 _"And you knew and didn't warn me."_ Frisk thought, pouting at her ghost friend.

 ** _"Of course. And don't give me that look. You feel better now. And don't try to lie. I can see what's in your head."_** Chara said with a grin.

 _"You know, when you put it that way, you kind of make it sound really creepy."_ Frisk joked as she carefully stepped over two sleeping Moldsmal, trying not to disturb them. As she did, she brushed up against an Echo Flower.

"So? Don't you have any wishes to make?" she heard a child's voice ask from it.

Curiously, she moved to the next one and heard another child reply. "Just one...but it's kind of stupid."

Frisk wasn't sure which way to go, so without asking Chara, she took the left path, coming to a patch of long grass. She saw something pink sticking out of it and wandered over, pulling out a pair of pink ballet shoes. And though they looked used, they were in great shape too! No one was around or seemed to be looking for them, so Frisk grinned and took off her own pair of holey sneakers and soggy socks, sliding the ballet shoes on in their place. Somehow, they fit her perfectly, warm and soft on the inside, but with a tough, waterproof layer on the outside. She had never had anything this nice before. "Wow, these are actually really comfy." she said as she slid her other shoes in her bag. It felt great to wear shoes without holes in them for once. She wondered what else she could find lying in the Underground that she could take...

 _ **"Stealing the matching set of shoes to your stolen tutu, huh, Miss Kleptomaniac?"**_ Chara teased. She had only meant it as a joke, but Frisk looked down, ashamed and embarrassed.

 _"Well, since there's no one around looking for them, someone must have just dumped them here. And if whoever dropped them wants them back, I'll return them."_ she thought to her, a little bit defensively. The truth was, the ballet shoes and tutu had been far from the only things Frisk stole. Mostly, she stole food, mostly from the cafeteria at school or from abandoned trays or other students' lunch bags, but if she saw anything someone lost or left behind; a wallet(which had only happened twice), a coat, money of any denomination, anything at all that was left behind that she thought she and Tina could use she would take without even trying to find the owner. And once, during a few desperate times where they didn't have any food, she had even stolen from a store, though she rarely did it as the risk of getting caught, arrested, and separated from her sister was too high. It wasn't something she necessarily liked doing, but it was often something she felt would help keep Tina and her fed and dressed when she couldn't find odd jobs to do. She knew stealing was wrong, and she often got in trouble whenever she was caught stealing at school. But she kept doing it, sometimes feeling guilty, sometimes satisfied(especially if the person she stole from was a jerk), and sometimes not caring at all, just happy to have whatever she had stolen.

But right now, with a friend seeing this, seeing what she did, she just felt ashamed. She was glad Tina had never seen her like this. What kind of example would Frisk being a freaking thief set for her little sister?

Chara caught all of the tangled, messed up thoughts Frisk hadn't been meaning to project to her and frowned. **_"Frisk, hey, I was just messing with ya. It's okay. Since they're in the middle of nowhere and no one's looking for them, likely someone outgrew them and dumped them here. And you remember what Papyrus said about the tutu, that it was at the room in the waterfall for a while and he didn't think anyone would pick it up. Plus, you do need shoes. Your old ones look like a piece of Swiss cheese."_**

Frisk nodded quietly. _"Thanks, Chara."_ she thought softly as she traveled back along the winding pathway with her friend, though she still looked rather ashamed, mind stuck in the past.

 ** _"I don't think any less of you, you know. You were desperate, scared, and did what you felt you had to to help yourself and your sister survive."_** Chara said looked up at her, surprised. **_"Weird mental link thing, remember? I'm not the only one who projects without meaning to. And it's not like you're the only one who's done something in the moral gray area. I have too, so I'm not gonna judge you. And...I know it's usually me blocking you out and you telling me that you're here for me if I need to talk, but I'm here if you need to as well."_**

Frisk smiled softly at her and relaxed. _"Thanks, Chara. That means a lot."_

The two continued on, traveling across another bridge and nearly crashing into Woshua and Aaron, who were traveling together. Aaron winked at Frisk and challenged her to a rematch, while Woshua decided Frisk was way too dirty(he was probably right) and wanted to clean her once again, and Frisk let him, though she had to dodge the worst of Woshua's overenthusiastic soap attack while trying to flex with Aaron and dodge his accidental punches and sweat bullets. Finally, Aaron blasted himself off, leaving a big pile of gold behind and Woshua wandered away happy. Frisk wasn't sure whether the gold was dropped accidentally this time in Aaron's blastoff or left for her on purpose like some of the other monsters had. She picked it up like she normally would with dropped money and was about to keep it, but Chara gave her a look that was gentle but still said that she shouldn't do that, making her feel guilty, so she placed the gold in a separate pocket, fully intending to return it to Aaron when she saw him again.

Finally, the two found the right path and traveled north. Frisk saw a sign and went to read it, thinking it was directions, but it was another part of the story about humans and monsters. "The power to take their souls, this is what the humans feared." she read aloud. She could pretty much guess what happened next.

Heading into the next room, they moved along a thin black path surrounded by dark blue water. All was calm until a light yellow tentacle longer than she was tall popped up out of the water. Frisk quickly backed up, covering her mouth to muffle an involuntary yelp. She was about to bolt, but then another tentacle snaked up on the other side. She walked quickly, trying not to let the tentacles' owner hear her, but wanting to get to the other side as fast as she could before this thing, whatever it was, surfaced and saw her as it looked like it might be really freaking huge.

But before she could get too far, the water bubbled up near her and something slowly began to surface. Part of Frisk was frozen in fear as a bulbous yellow head slowly emerged from the water. The creature appeared to be an octopus monster with huge, almost anime style eyes and a derpy looking smile which made it somehow look both cute and slightly unsettling.

"Hey there...noticed you were...here." it spoke in a slow, but friendly voice and Frisk relaxed a little. "I'm Onionsan! Onionsan, y' hear!"

"Nice to meet you, Onionsan. I'm..." Frisk started but was once again cut off.

"You're visiting Waterfall, huh? It's great here, huh? You love it, huh?" Onionsan asked and Frisk just nodded. Having an angry warrior hunt her wasn't so fun, but she had to admit Waterfall WAS pretty. "Yeah! Me too! It's my Big Favorite!" Onionsan had a huge grin and was just staring at her now, and even though she didn't think they was trying to creep her out, she did take a few steps forward. Onionsan clearly wasn't finished with the conversation though and followed her, so she stopped again. "Even though the water's getting so shallow here. I have to sit down all the time, but h-hey! That's okay! It beats moving to the city...and living in a crowded aquarium! ...Like all my friends did." Though still smiling, Onionsan looked kind of sad as he turned away, and she felt bad for him. "And the aquarium's full a-anyway, so, even if I wanted to, I..." He then perked up again. "That's okay though, y'hear? Undyne's gonna fix everything, y'hear? I'm going to get out of here and live in the ocean, y-hear? Now you have a good time, y'hear?" He started to go underwater. "In Waterfallllll..."

Frisk smiled as she moved on to the next room, but she also felt more than a little uneasy about what Undyne was likely gonna do to get the monsters out of there. It terrified the heck out of her. But before she could think on it too long or Chara could reassure her, she heard a soft female voice whisper, "But I don't think I can do it..." She turned and saw a monster that was huddled in the corner, soft blue hair hiding its face. It had a sea green, almost mermaid like body with two spikes on its back, though the tail looked more like that of a snake's than a fish's.

"Nonsense, Shyren, your voice is beautiful! This concert will make your career and mine!" a second voice scolded. Strangely enough it seemed like it came from the same monster. "And you love to sing and you're great at it. Stop worrying. You'll do fine."

"But-But what if my voice cracks again?" the first voice, who Frisk assumed to be Shyren, asked nervously. Her head then turned and she yelped in surprise when she caught sight of Frisk. The head then literally jumped back...off the body and huddled into the nearest corner. Frisk had to keep herself from shrieking at this, then realized what she thought was one whole monster was actually two monsters as the "body" reached up to settle the head, well, Shyren, down and place her back on top of it.

Frisk quickly held up her hands to show she wasn't armed. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you guys. Was just passing through."

Both monsters seemed to calm down at this. "It's all right." the snake monster said, then her whole body perked up. "Wait! Shyren, I have an idea! Why don't you try singing in front of this kid?"

Shyren jolted and looked between her agent and Frisk, shocked by the sudden request. "I...uh..."

"It's okay, Shyren. I'd love to hear you sing." Frisk said, smiling as she remembered all the times Tina had sung songs from her elementary school choir to her.

"I-I'm not really that good...I...I might screw up...My voice cracks sometimes..." Shyren stammered.

"Trust me, any singing you do, even on your worst day, will be way better than mine. I sound like nails on a chalkboard when I try to sing. So don't worry." Frisk told her.

"You'll do great, child. Trust me, I wouldn't be your agent if I didn't know you had an amazing voice." Shyren's agent told her.

With this encouragement, Shyren hesitantly nodded. "A-All right. What do you want me to sing?"

"Hmm...there's this cool song I heard on the radio several times...I don't remember the title fully, I think it's like Wake Me Up or something, but I do remember how it goes." Frisk said.

"C-Can you sing the first few lines to me?" Shyren asked softly.

It was Frisk's turn to look nervous. "Maybe...Maybe I'd better just say it. Trust me, I can't sing."

"I'm sure your voice can't that bad." the agent said.

"It-It'll make me feel better if you sing too." Shyren told her, then was worried she was asking for too much.

"Okay, but please don't sue me for eardrum damage." Frisk joked before starting to sing. "Feeeeeling my waaay through the daaaarkneeesss, guided by a beeaating heeeaart..." Everyone winced, including Frisk.

 _ **"Frisk, you're my friend, but I still have to tell you that that sounded less like nails on a chalkboard and more like someone ran over a cat."**_ Chara muttered, rubbing her ears.

 _"i know. I know."_ Frisk sighed before looking at the others apologetically.

"It, um, wasn't that bad..." Shyren said, trying to make Frisk feel better.

"You can say it sucked." Frisk said with a soft laugh.

"Okay, it kind of sucked." Shyren admitted. "But I know that song. It's actually one of my favorites." Feeling like Frisk wouldn't laugh at her gave her some confidence and she began to sing softly as she faced Frisk, her voice sounding like an angel's. "Feeling my way through the darkness...guided by a beating heart..." Frisk was nearly hypnotized by the beauty of her voice, standing still and listening in awe, swaying softly to the beat.

Unfortunately, Shyren had forgotten that when her voice was at its full power, it could become an attack, so as she got into the song, glowing white music notes shot from her mouth, flying at Frisk. Frisk yelped as one struck her in the soul and she managed to barely dodge the others.

Shyren gasped and immediately stopped singing as her agent rushed over to check on Frisk. "I'm so sorry! I can't believe I did that! Are you all right?"

Frisk nodded shakily. "Yeah, I'm fine." Thankfully, the attack had only taken a few HP as Shyren didn't mean to hit her and had no intention of hurting her, and Shyren's attacks were solely magic and didn't deal any physical damage to the body, not even a bruise. "Don't worry, it was just an accident." Still, Shyren looked to be getting more upset at herself, so Frisk joked, "Still way better than my singing."

"At least your voice doesn't almost kill your audience." Shyren muttered.

"Aim into the air when you sing." her agent advised. "It won't hit anyone and it would make a stunning visual effect."

Still, it took a few more minutes for both of them to convince Shyren to sing again, but after making sure she was aiming where she couldn't hit anyone, the sweet sound of Shyren's voice filled the room again as she restarted the song.

Losing herself in the tune, Frisk began to move with the music. Ever since fourth grade, where her gym teacher, one of the few teachers she actually liked, had given dancing lessons one quarter, she had loved it. Though she knew few official dance steps and was nowhere near perfect at it, dancing to the beat of music always relaxed her, soothing her worry, anger, and fear. Normally, she'd never do it in front of strangers, but Shyren's voice took away any nervousness.

Chara smiled as she listened to Shyren sing and watched Frisk dance. Both looked so peaceful and content and she wished she had her sketchpad so she could draw them.

And she wasn't the only one taking notice. Monsters had started hearing the music and were trailing into the room. First came Aaron, who grinned and whispered, "Woshua, get your butt in here! Shy's finally singing again! And she even got her own little backup dancer!" Woshua scuttled in behind him and scrubbed the ground before taking a seat. Others quickly followed them, eager to listen to the music. The room was soon filled, but Frisk and Shyren were in their own little world, their eyes closed, lost in the feeling of music and dance, not noticing anything but the melody and beat. They didn't notice Shyren's agent's pleased smile or Chara's giggles as she caught sight of Sans selling tickets at the door.

As Shyren hummed the last few notes of the song, both her and Frisk's eyes opened, then widened when they realized they were surrounded. Shyren let out a frightened "Eep!"and jumped off her agent, quickly hiding behind Frisk, who had frozen and turned bright red.

And then cheers and clapping filled the room. Shyren kept hiding while Frisk smiled awkwardly, still bright red and embarrassed that most of Waterfall had caught her dancing.

 _ **"You two put on quite a show. Look, Sans is even selling tickets made of toilet paper."**_ Chara told Frisk with a happy laugh as she pointed out into the audience. Frisk glanced out at Sans, who was indeed at the door to the room, handing out toilet paper tickets. When he caught Frisk's eye, he grinned at her and gave her a wink and a thumbs up.

 _ **"You're such a weirdo, Sans."**_ Chara told Sans with a smile, and floated over to him, giving him a playful nudge like she always did when he did something especially goofy. She wasn't expecting him to even feel it, but he turned and looked around, thinking someone had bumped him. But though he looked right at Chara, he still couldn't see her.

Chara's eyes went wide when she realized he had felt her. _**"Sans, can you feel me? Can you hear me? I'm right here."**_ she asked softly. Sans vaguely thought he heard someone say his name and looked around, but couldn't see anyone trying to get his attention, and the cheering crowd drowned everything else out, so he just went back to selling tickets.

"Encore!" a Moldsmal cried.

"Shyren! Shyren! Shyren!" Aaron chanted from the front row. Shyren was an old friend of his and he was glad to hear her singing again. This of course got everyone else started in chanting Shyren's name, wanting more music. Unfortunately, all the loud attention just made Shyren more nervous.

Frisk turned to Shyren and moved so that she was beside Shyren rather than Shyren hiding behind her.

"There's so many people..." Shyren whispered, hiding her face behind her long hair.

"They love you, Shyren. Trust me, your voice is AMAZING." Frisk whispered to her. "You have nothing to worry about. Just relax. Imagine the audience in their underwear." This was the same advice she had given to Tina when Tina was nervous about singing her We Wish You A Merry Christmas solo in her kindergarten Christmas concert. She wasn't sure if Tina had actually used her advice, but at least it had made her little sister laugh and relax.

"...What?" Shyren asked and Frisk blushed as she realized most of the monsters here, including Shyren, didn't actually wear underwear.

"...Never mind. Try doing what we were doing earlier. Just sing and get lost in the music, and trust me, you won't be afraid." Frisk told her. She gave Shyren a smile and Shyren smiled back. "There's that smile." Frisk said happily. Aaron had heard most of the conversation and nodded approvingly, smiling at them both.

Shyren looked at Frisk. "Can-Can you stay, just for one more song?" she asked softly, knowing she would feel more confident with both her old friend in the front row and her new friend by her side.

Her face looked almost exactly like Tina's when she had begged Frisk to come to that concert(Frisk sneaked out of after school detention for it, and got into more trouble, but she didn't give a crap as it was beyond worth it, especially seeing her sister's face light up when Frisk had waved to her from the back row.) and it was something Frisk couldn't say no to. "Of course."

"Do Best Day Of My Life, Shy!" Aaron called from the front. It was Shyren's favorite song, and hearing Shyren sing once again definitely made it the best day of his life.

"Ooh, that's a good one!" Frisk said and started softly humming it, slightly better than she had sang, hoping Shyren would join in.

And she did, hesitantly at first, then with more confidence. "I had a dream so big and loud; I jumped so high I touched the clouds...whoah oh oh oh oh..." The monsters cheered, and Aaron got up, winked at Frisk who was standing still, and started dancing to get her and everyone else to join in. Several of the others joined in, and Frisk did as well, grinning and getting lost in the music again as she danced along with the others. Dancing alone was good, but dancing here with the monsters...so much more fun.

But soon, the song ended. It was time to part ways now. Shyren would be fine now on her own, and Frisk needed to resume her journey, having another story in her heart to tell her sister when she got home. As she hopped off the stage, Aaron grinned at her and gave her a congratulatory slap on her back that nearly made her stumble. She then remembered his dropped money and gave it back to him, and he thanked her for it, having not even realized he dropped it. Other monsters smiled and greeted her, and Nice Cream Guy, who had taken the opportunity of the impromptu concert to sell most of his stock, gave her and Shyren a complimentary ice cream for boosting his business, which made both thank him gratefully.

Frisk was smiling as she headed out the room. "That was really fun." When Chara didn't respond, Frisk looked to her. The ghost had a thoughtful, longing, and worried expression on her face. _"Hey, you okay?"_

 ** _"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine."_** Chara said, trying to give Frisk a smile to reassure her, but the smile looked fake to Frisk.

Frisk wasn't convinced. _"You sure?"_

 ** _"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."_** Chara told her, and Frisk sighed, but she knew Chara well enough to know that she wouldn't talk about it, even if Frisk wished she would.

 _"All right. Same speech I normally give you."_ Frisk told her, trying to lighten the mood, which did get a small laugh out of Chara, but the ghost remained quiet and thoughtful.

Chara was thinking about Sans's reaction earlier, though careful to keep her thoughts to herself and her memories on lockdown so Frisk wouldn't accidentally see anything. Sans had acted like he had _felt_ something and had looked around after she nudged him, and also after she had spoken. Was it coincidence, or was he starting to sense her? Would he be able to see and hear her soon like Frisk did? Part of her wanted that desperately, to be able to interact with him again, but part of her didn't. She knew that if she told Frisk about this, Frisk would try to convince her to let her tell Sans and possibly her mom as well. But she couldn't.

After all, how could she face them after everything she had done? After how much damage her and Asriel's deaths had caused to the Underground, to her family, to Undyne, to Sans himself? After she had gotten her baby brother KILLED?

She didn't deserve to have her family back, not when Asriel would never be able to.

All she deserved...was to burn in hell.

She realized her thoughts had entered dangerous territory and glanced at Frisk, hoping Frisk hadn't seen any of those memories. She was nowhere near ready to tell the younger girl about that. Thankfully, nothing had slipped through her mental wall, and though Frisk did give her the occasional concerned glance and was a little worried about how secretive she was, her friend's thoughts eventually moved to other subjects.

Frisk smiled as she thought of the concert and the new friends she had made. Shyren was sweet, her talent agent(who she still needed to figure out the name of) was nice, and Aaron was funny. Dancing on the stage had been fun, especially when everyone had joined in, and she knew Tina, who unlike her, had a fairly decent singing voice, would have enjoyed singing with Shyren.

She wished she could bring Tina here. They'd have a real mom, one who baked them pie and tucked them in at night(if she was still willing), and Frisk would never have to worry about making sure they had enough to eat. They'd have plenty of friends, a house that didn't leak during rainstorms, no fear of a bunch of wild people in their house doing drugs, drinking beer and throwing things around...A life better than anything they had on the surface!

Maybe, just maybe, she could bring Tina here! Papyrus had told her if she didn't feel safe at her home, she could get her sister and come back. And though she wished she had Papyrus's power of believing in people, she was ninety five percent sure her parents wouldn't change. She had learned the hard way years ago that they didn't care about her or Tina, and she didn't think it would ever change. Of course, they could change, but to do that, they'd have to want to, and she didn't think they would want to. If she could just get through the barrier, get her sister, get some climbing rope or something, and climb down the hole she had fallen with Tina, she could get back to the ruins and beg Toriel to take them in, which Frisk desperately hoped she would.

 _ **"She will."**_ Chara promised her, having heard Frisk's trail of thought. Frisk looked at her, surprised. _**"You're projecting again. You always do when you're thinking hard. But don't worry. Mom would happily adopt you and Tina. She told you you'd always have a home in the Ruins, remember?"**_

Frisk smiled at this and nodded, feeling relieved, continuing to think of the possibilities of living with Tina in the Underground. She could see if she could find a job at the small store in Snowdin or Grillby's to help pay for food and rent, and they could visit Sans and Papyrus. Frisk smiled as she thought of Sans telling jokes to her sister and Papyrus showing his puzzles to Tina and making her spaghetti. And Toriel had mentioned that she wanted to be a teacher, so maybe she'd be willing to teach Tina, and maybe Frisk could take some lessons too. Frisk hated her school, the teachers who thought she was a trouble-making idiot(though she did have to admit that breaking a lot of school rules even though it was for a good cause, getting grades that were not so good in some subjects because she didn't have time to study with all the odd jobs she was doing, not completing all her homework, and getting so tired she slept at her desk instead of listening to the lectures wasn't exactly endearing to teachers), the students who mocked her worn out clothes and odd behavior, and the subjects she couldn't understand and had seriously considered dropping out of school totally, but maybe school would be better with Toriel. And she would work hard to prove to Toriel that she wasn't wrong to take them in...

 _ **"Frisk, it took me a while to figure it out, but Mom doesn't think like that."**_ Chara pointed out. _**"I mean, she will want you to do your best on your schoolwork, but she's not going to make you pay for food and rent, and she's not gonna kick you out if you don't understand something or if you make a mistake. She loves you and she's gonna love Tina."**_

This made Frisk feel better and strengthened her desire to bring Tina here to the Underground. Tina would love Toriel, Sans, and Papyrus(and Chara if Chara would let her tell Tina she was here) and Frisk had seen plenty of small monster children close to Tina's age running throughout Snowdin who Tina might be able to play with. And they could even visit Shyren and Aaron in Waterfall if Undyne wasn't...

Undyne.

Frisk's blood went cold. She had nearly forgotten about Undyne, Flowey, and Asgore! Undyne was still out for her blood, Flowey was...well, Flowey, and Asgore was still looking for human souls to break the barrier and set the monsters free.

If she brought Tina here and she wasn't able to befriend Undyne and Asgore, Tina would be in great danger.

Chara could literally see all the tension Sans and the concert had relaxed return to Frisk's body, and even if she hadn't been able to read Frisk's thoughts, she'd know exactly what Frisk was thinking, especially when Frisk's breathing became erratic and her eyes dilated in fear as she remembered Undyne's attack on her, her whole body then shaking as her mind involuntarily imagined her tiny sister in her place.

 _ **"Frisk...Frisk...listen to me. It's gonna be okay. Undyne and Dad will come around. They're good people, Frisk, and as soon as they figure out you're not going to do what that other human did, they'll stop this. They're not going to kill your little sister, okay? They-They'd never harm a six year old child. They wouldn't."**_ Chara's voice was shaking at this point. _**"Everything's going to be fine. And-And if they have gotten that bad, which I know they haven't, Mom won't let them enter the ruins, okay? Though she WILL let Sans and your boyfriend in."**_ she teased, trying to calm them both.

This settled Frisk down a little and she let out a soft snort and rolled her eyes while mumbling, _"Not my boyfriend."_ in her head. Chara could still see her hands shaking a little though. _"We-We do still have to get past Undyne and your dad first to get to the barrier anyway. We'll-We'll see what happens."_ she thought, trying to sound braver mentally than she felt.

Chara nodded. **_"It'll all be okay."_** she said, though she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince Frisk or herself. Frisk gave a shaky nod in reply and took a deep breath as they stepped into the long hallway where another set of plaques on the human/monster awaited them, knowing one of the most dangerous parts of her journey was likely ahead.

She never saw the sneaky yellow weed following her a distance away.

...

" _Ugh, why can't something EXCITING happen? All I've seen is the idiot sing and dance and think she can be everyone's best friend. Well, she can't. Sooner or later Fish Face is gonna find her, and while the brat may have some sympathy or something for her, it's not going to last long when a spear gets run through her. Then, she'll listen to lil' ol Flowey when I tell her it's kill or be killed!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While Chara struggles with her unresolved guilt and the fact that Sans is starting to sense her presence, danger still lurks for Frisk in Waterfall. Undyne has not given up yet, and a certain yellow flower is still stalking Frisk. As Sans finds out it's not all that easy to protect a danger prone teenager and Papyrus tries to find Undyne to stop her from exacting her vengeance on Frisk, strange secrets will be revealed, new friends will be made, and pacifism will be put to the ultimate test. 
> 
> Don't worry, readers(and Flowey)! The more exciting part is coming up. Papyrus's call to Undyne, Undyne's thoughts, Frisk's past, and the Shyren encounter was longer than I expected.
> 
> I also wanted to give the minor monsters a chance to shine too. They're Frisk's friends as well, and everyone comes running when Frisk is in danger at the Capitol in True Pacifist, so they play a very important part.
> 
> I do not own Undertale or the songs Wake Me Up or Best Day Of My Life.
> 
> Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think!


	10. Adventures In Waterfall, Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina has returned, and Frisk is continuing to make her journey. Undyne and a certain yellow flower still lurk, and a new friend is made while old memories are revisited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for the wait on this! I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> There are three new OCs in Tina's part of the story, with Tina's mother being introduced for the first time as well as two other OCs who will be very minor, but may come back further along the line if people like them.
> 
> Monster Kid identifies as male here.
> 
> Please leave a review and let me know what you think of the story!

"Here we go." Frisk said to herself a little bit nervously as they continued down the long hallway. She again wondered how Tina was doing, desperately hoping her baby sister was okay.

...

_"Look both ways before you cross the street."_

_"Stay to the main roads where there's lots of people. It's safest that way."_

_"Don't approach any strangers on the street or talk to them."_

Frisk's instructions ran through Tina's head as the little girl walked down the street, the change she had taken from her piggy bank in her pocket. It wasn't too much, but it might be enough to buy her a box of crackers. Food was running a bit low again, and while she still had some, she knew it would be a good idea to get some more, especially something she could hide in her room so the scary people her parents invited over couldn't eat it all. And if-when! Frisk got home, her big sister might be hungry. Frisk always made sure to give her food when she was hungry, so she wanted to the same for her.

Tina carefully looked both ways before crossing the street. As she started towards the little supermarket, she passed the little church nearby, then saw a sign reading Food Pantry. She remembered Frisk saying she had gotten some food at a food pantry a year ago, so she pushed open the heavy door and headed inside.

Inside there was the fresh smell of baked bread and the even sweeter smell of cookies. Several grownups were sitting at long tables that were covered with loaves of bread, bags of bagels, some canned goods and plates of cookies.

Tina glanced longingly at the cookies, but she knew she probably couldn't afford them and needed something more substantial, so she picked up a loaf of bread. She approached a middle lady sitting at the table who had curly brown hair running down to her shoulders and was wearing a pretty purple top who was sitting at one of the tables. She had a name tag that read Marianne. "How much is this, please?" Tina asked, holding up the bread. Frisk had said it was okay to talk to salespeople, just not to go with anyone in the store alone.

The lady smiled at her. "That's free, sweetie. We're giving them away and you and your family can have a bag of bagels to go with them as well as this food package." She set out a bag containing two family sized boxes of mac and cheese, a can of mixed veggies, some little cans of tuna, and some of those plastic containers of sliced peaches.

Tina gave her a wide grin. "That's really nice! Thank you!"

"You're welcome, little one. And just for being so sweet, you can have a bag of these chocolate chip cookies too. Miss Donna baked them, and just between you and me, she's the best baker in all of Ebott City." Marianne whispered in a playful conspiratorial tone. She then looked around, searching for the little girl's parents who she had thought might have let the little one get the bread "all by herself." She frowned when she saw no one. "Where are your parents, honey?"

"Daddy's out working and Mommy's not feeling well, so I decided to come here to get food." Tina said and her tummy twisted a little at the partial lie. Daddy had went out, and she didn't know where he went(though she hoped he was working) and Mommy was passed out on the couch and had briefly awoken, but only groaned and told her to go away when Tina had tried to speak to her, then went right back to sleep. The bad pills always made Mommy tired the next day.

Marianne frowned as she heard this and then caught sight of the child's thin frame and worn out pink dress. "I know you were trying to help, sweetie, but you shouldn't wander off on your own. Your mommy's probably worried sick about you. What's your name?"

Tina felt nervous. Miss Marianne seemed nice, but she didn't know her at all. Then she remembered another piece of advice from Frisk. _If someone you don't know very well or don't trust asks for your name and you can't get out of the conversation, give them a fake one._ "I'm...Amy. Amy White." Tina said and though she tried to keep a straight face, her tummy twisted painfully at the lie again.

Marianne noticed the child's strange tone, but decided not to comment on it. "Tell you what, Amy, why don't I walk you home? I don't want you to get hurt crossing the street, plus it looks like it's about to rain." she offered, not wanting the little girl to get lost or hurt. "Just let me tell Miss Donna where I'm going. She walked away for a minute to tell the church leader where she was going, but when she went back, the little girl was gone. "Where'd she...Hey, David, did you see where that little girl went?" she called across the room to the other volunteer.

David, a younger man with brownish red hair in a green polo T-shirt, looked up from the elderly woman he was giving bread to. "The little girl you were talking to? I just saw her run outside. I assumed her family was out there." He hadn't heard the conversation and didn't know the little one was there completely alone.

Marianne's heart skipped a beat and she ran to the door, but couldn't catch sight of the little girl anywhere.

"What's wrong?" David asked her.

"She was here alone. She said her dad was off working and her mom was sick. And I offered to walk her home, but she ran off when my back was turned. And now that I think about it, I'm not sure she told me the truth about what her name was. I'm worried about her. She can't be any more than five or six. She shouldn't be wandering the streets alone."

David frowned in worry. "It's possible she's from a poorer family and is afraid we'll call CPS and have her taken away or something. She also could be worried about getting in trouble or just got nervous because you're a stranger."

"What should I do?" Marianne asked, still worried about the child.

"I don't know how much you can do." David admitted. "We could look into it further, but the police might not do much unless we have solid evidence that she's in danger. I hate to say it, but the best thing we could do might be to wait. The good thing is that she knows there's free food here, so she might come back. Someone here can talk to her then. We can tell the leaders here about her and see about getting her the help she needs if she does need help."

Marianne nodded with a frown, and did go back to her work, but her mind was occupied for the rest of the day about the little girl who had come in and then vanished like a ghost. She hoped there would be something she could do to help.

...

Once the lady had gone back inside, Tina stepped out from her hiding place at the side of the building, having not been able to run as fast as she liked due to the heavy bags. Her heart was pounding. She had barely made it to her hiding spot in time. Adjusting the bags and making sure she wasn't being followed, she ran all the way home, stumbling at times due to the weight of the bags. It was starting to rain, but she got to her door before the worst of it struck. That had been a close one. She didn't know what would have happened if the lady had walked her home. She had seemed nice, but though Tina was pretty sure she wouldn't have hurt her, she didn't know for sure. The Stranger Danger person at school said some kidnappers would act nice to get kids to trust them, so she had to be extra careful, especially since Frisk wasn't there to protect her. And if she had let Marianne bring her home, she didn't know what the lady would have done, or if it would have upset Mommy. And she knew her home wasn't as nice as that of some of the other kids, and that her home life wasn't the best, so what if the lady had called someone to take her away, and she never got to see Frisk again? Little Andrew in kindergarten had been placed in a separate foster home from two of his five brothers and sisters, and he hadn't seen them since. She didn't want to never see Frisk again!

Tears filled her eyes. Frisk had been gone for over three days. She had never been gone this long. She desperately hoped Frisk had come home while she had been at the church, but saw no one except her mommy, who was sitting at the table and staring into space, dark circles around her eyes. Like Frisk, she had short brown hair, though she had blue eyes rather than Frisk's brown and she was thin and wiry, and she wore an old, baggy, stained shirt. She didn't even look up when Tina opened the door. Tina slipped upstairs to her room and hid the food under her bed. This would last her a while and if..when! Frisk came back home, she would have something nice to eat.

But she was still worried about Frisk. And though Mommy and Daddy had brushed it off yesterday and the day before when Tina had told them Frisk hadn't come home, maybe Mommy would listen this time.

Tina went downstairs and approached her mom cautiously. "Mommy?"

Her mother sighed. "What do you need, Tina?"

"Frisk still isn't home yet. I'm worried about her."

"She probably just ran off with a friend or something. She'll be fine."

"But she might be hurt!" Tina protested.

Her mom just rolled her eyes and sighed. "She'll be okay. She's a tough kid and can take care of herself. I did all the time at her age. Now...just go to your room and play or something. I have a headache."

"But..."

"Just go to your room, Tina!" her mother snapped, irritable from drug withdrawal.

Tina finally nodded and ran to her room, tears in her eyes. There was a crack of thunder and she yelped and trembled. She was absolutely terrified of thunderstorms, and it was even worse with no Frisk to hold her. She grabbed her stuffed puppy and her sketchpad she had been given for art class, and whenever she heard another boom, she ducked under her bed with a whimper, sticking her thumb in her mouth as tears filled her eyes. "I want Frisk." she whispered to herself, her throat feeling a little sore, probably from all the crying she had done over the past few days. All she wanted was her big sister back, to know Frisk was safe, to be held by her again.

She shivered. She was cold from the rain. Once the storm had slowed down a bit, she summoned enough bravery to crawl out from under the bed and go to her closet, where she had a pink sweater. It was old and had a few small holes, but it was warm at least. She pulled it over her head and sniffled a little, then went back to her safe hiding spot under the bed. Her stomach growled hungrily and she took a bagel from her stash and bit into it. It had fresh blueberries in it and was the tastiest thing she had had in the last few days. She tried to eat it slowly to make it last longer. Once she was finished, she felt a little better.

She knew she needed to do something though to help find Frisk. Her mom and dad wouldn't help, and Tina was afraid the police would send her some place else, but maybe her teacher could help. Miss Brown was super nice and really smart. She would understand that Tina didn't want to be taken away from her sister, and she might be able to help find Frisk.

School would start again the day after tomorrow. If Frisk didn't return by then, Tina would talk to Miss Brown. They would find Frisk and everything would be okay. She'd have her sister back soon.

...

As Frisk headed down the corridor with Chara, she walked up to the first plaque she saw. Like the ones she had read yesterday, it was about the human/monster war. "This power has no counter. Indeed, a human cannot take a monster's soul. When a monster dies, its soul disappears. And an incredible power would be needed to take the soul of a living monster." She was confused for a second until she remembered that the last sign she had seen had been about what would happen if a monster took a human's soul. She moved to the next sign. "There is only one exception. The soul of a special species of monster known as a Boss Monster. A Boss Monster's soul is strong enough to persist after death, if only for a few moments. A human could absorb this soul. But this has never happened. And now it never will." she read. She looked at Chara in confusion. _"If it's never happened, how do they know a human could absorb a boss monster soul?"_ she asked.

Chara shrugged. _**"Don't know. And honestly don't want to."**_ She shivered at the thought of a human taking Toriel or Asgore's soul. She knew Frisk wouldn't, but if someone like the human who hurt Undyne fell again...

 _"You okay?"_ Frisk asked her.

 _ **"I'm fine. That's just not a fun thing to think about when your parents are boss monsters."**_ Chara replied.

Frisk shuddered at the thought of Toriel's soul being taken. _"Definitely not."_

They moved on down the hallway. Frisk encountered yet another Woshua, who said they were the cousin of the one who always hung out with Aaron when Frisk asked. Apparently everyone in their family was named Woshua. The little monster said it "avoided confusion," though Frisk was more confused than before. Chara just laughed and said that at least they never forgot their names.

Thankfully, this Woshua was just as easy to placate as the rest of their family and waddled away happily after scrubbing Frisk down with hot soapy water.

 _"Ugh, this one got soap in my eyes."_ Frisk complained to Chara as she tried to rub the soap away from her face, then ended up bumping into something. She looked up, squinting through the soap to barely make out the silhouette of a huge monster with a bulky frame and horns in front of her, hunched over. She had to close her eyes again to try to keep the soap out, but she could feel water dripping on them. "Oops, sorry about that. I got soap in my eyes and couldn't see where I was going." she told them.

No response. Maybe they were sleeping. At least she hoped they were sleeping.

"Okaay...I'll just be heading off now." she said. She didn't see Chara holding back laughter.

She felt her way into the next room, still trying to rub the soap out of her eyes, she heard the sound of a waterfall. Making her way over to it, watching where she was stepping, she found that the area was all wet stone with no drop-off and the water smelled clean enough, so she dunked her head briefly under the waterfall, rinsing off her face and hair and cleaning the soap out of her eyes. Once she had gotten it out and her vision cleared, she took a look around the room. The room seemed empty except for a basket of colorful umbrellas and a sign reading "Please take one." She shrugged and picked up a red umbrella, then as a gesture of apology and wanting to spread the kindness many monsters had given her down here around(as well as let the monster know that even though she was a human, it didn't mean she was evil and needed to be destroyed painfully by Undyne), she took the umbrella to the monster in the rain. Starting to lift the umbrella over the monster, she started to say. "Here. I brought you an..." then stopped short.

She was talking to a statue. She turned bright red in embarrassment as Chara started laughing.

 _ **"You know, if people hear you talking to statues, they're going to think you're crazy."**_ Chara teased her.

 _"Hey, I had soap in my eyes and it was a very realistic looking statue! Plus, you knew and didn't..."_ Frisk started to protest when she heard the sound of beautiful music coming from the statue. Above it, circles and arrows glowed in time with the song. "Wow...It must be some sort of puzzle...or test of kindness or something..." She looked at Chara, only to see that the ghost had tears in her eyes. _"Chara, what's wrong?"_

 ** _"This is Azzy's song."_** Chara whispered. **_"He loved to play the piano, and he even wrote his own song. This is it. This-This must be his memorial, Frisk."_** She gave a sad smile, tears still in her eyes. **_"I should have guessed. This whole thing is like him. You know, he actually was the one who suggested setting out those baskets of umbrellas since surface water always rains down in the rooms up ahead and monsters always got wet walking through. Asriel thought everyone deserved an umbrella to keep them out of the rain."_** She was quiet for a few minutes and Frisk just stood there by her, wanting to hug her friend but knowing she physically couldn't. **_"You know, Asriel was my umbrella, protected me from the rain in life, or at least he tried. I-I just wish I could have been the same for him..."_**

Chara didn't say anything more, instead just looking at the statue. Frisk couldn't think of what to say to comfort her, so she just moved closer silently. After a little while, Chara drifted off, and Frisk followed her.

...

Frisk picked up another umbrella for herself from the bucket, leaving the first at Asriel's memorial. It was the only way she could think of right now to honor Chara's brother, who she would never know, but who reminded her so much of Tina just from what she knew about him. Her heart ached at the thought of ever losing Tina, and she hurt for her friend as well. The walk from the room was quiet and morose as they entered an area dripping with water with numerous clear waterfalls lining the right side of the path. The only sound was the the patter of rain, the rushing waterfalls, and Frisk's shoes lightly splashing through the puddles. Neither girl felt like talking.

But soon a cheery voice broke the silence. "Yo, you got an umbrella?" Frisk looked up and saw the monster kid she had met a few days ago, standing in a section that was out of the rain. He shook water off his scales and ran to join her, stepping through Chara to get under the umbrella and causing the ghost girl to let out an indignant _**"Hey!"**_ that was of course unheard by Monster Kid. "Awesome! Let's go!" he said, ignoring the fact that she hadn't invited him to join her under the umbrella. Not sure what else to do, Frisk just nodded and walked off with him, a bit annoyed by her personal space being suddenly invaded especially when she had her mind on a million other things, but she melted a little and held the umbrella over him more when he turned to her and gave her a cute grin. Chara gave some half-hearted grumbles, but just moved to Frisk's other side as she couldn't feel the rain anyway.

They walked for a few minutes, and Frisk had to admit that Monster Kid's presence and cheerful smile made her feel a bit less down, at least until he said. "Man, Undyne is sooo cool! She beats up bad guys and never loses!" Frisk gave a non committal hum, not wanting to say what she felt about Undyne currently when she had two Undyne fans on either side of her. "If I was a human, I'd wet the bed every night knowing she was going to beat me up. Ha ha!" he added. Frisk shivered a bit and he frowned in worry. "Yo, you okay?"

"Just cold from the rain." Frisk lied, not wanting him to know that she was in fact human.

He moved the umbrella more over her. "Here you go."

She smiled a little. He was pretty nice and very cheerful. "Thanks."

They walked a little more in silence before he spoke again, trying to make conversation with his quiet companion. "So one time, we had a school project where we had to take care of a flower." he told her. Frisk smiled and listened, remembering how Tina once had to take care of a tomato plant. Tina had been so enthusiastic about that project, but had accidentally killed her tomato plant by over-watering it and had been very sad about it, so Frisk had sneaked out late at night and carefully switched it out with a tomato plant from a neighbor's garden before her sister woke the next morning, so Tina was thrilled and thought her plant had miraculously come back to life. Frisk quickly snapped out of memory lane in time to hear Monster Kid's next words "The king...we had to call him Mr. Dreemurr- volunteered to donate his own flowers. He ended up coming to school and teaching the class about responsibility and stuff."

 _ **"That sounds like Dad. He loved to garden and was always very involved with his subjects. Not like the cold kings in human history books that only cared about themselves and people close to their station."**_ Chara said quietly, glad at least that part of her dad hadn't changed.

"That got me thinking... Yo! How COOL would it be if UNDYNE came to school?! She could beat up all the teachers!" Monster Kid was saying excitedly, bringing Frisk's attention back to him.

 _ **"Undyne wouldn't beat up a teacher...actually, scratch that. She did challenge my math tutor to a wrestling match..."**_ Chara mused. Frisk wasn't sure whether to laugh at this or not. She kind of felt bad for the teachers of the Underground now...

"Umm...maybe she wouldn't beat up the teachers. She's too cool to ever hurt an innocent person." Monster Kid said after a few minutes thought. Frisk held back what she wanted to say about that and reminded herself that Undyne had attacked because she thought that Frisk had been a genuine threat. It didn't make Frisk feel much better about her own safety though...

They entered the next room and Frisk caught sight of a beautiful castle in the distance, gray stone with plenty of windows, the coned roofs on the pillars glowing a luminous blue.

 _ **"That's Dad's castle. My old home."**_ Chara whispered.

The three continued to walk on into the next room. Another basket full of wet umbrellas was waiting, and Frisk returned her umbrella to the basket, guessing they were going to be out of the rainy area soon.

They soon came to a high ledge. Frisk tried to climb it or jump and grab hold of the edge, but she couldn't reach.

"Yo! That ledge is way too steep..." the monster Kid mused as he looked at the ledge. "Yo, you wanna see Undyne, right? Climb on my shoulders." Under no circumstance did Frisk want to see Undyne, but this was the only way she could go if she wanted to get out of here, so she thanked Monster Kid and climbed on his shoulders, grabbing hold of the ledge and pulling herself up. She then reached her hand down so he could grab it to pull himself up, then wanted to smack herself as she remembered he didn't have arms. She tried to figure out how to get him up there.

"Yo, you go on ahead. Don't worry about me. I always find a way to get through." he reassured her. He gave her another cheerful smile which made her smile back, then turned and walked away. He tripped and fell, but got back up again on his own and wandered off.

Frisk moved on and saw another sign up ahead and read it. "The humans, afraid of our power, declared war on us. They attacked suddenly and without mercy." She went to the next sign. "In the end, it could hardly be called a war. United, the humans were too powerful, and us monsters too weak. Not a single soul was taken, and countless monsters turned to dust." She shivered at this. Humans did fear things they didn't understand, but she wondered what had started all this in the first place. Had there been a bad seed in the monsters, like the ones who had tried to kill Chara in the flashback Chara had shown her, and had they tried to take a soul and the humans thought all monsters were like this, or did a human or group of humans spread cruel rumors like they had in the Salem Witch Hunts she had heard about in history this year and sent the other humans into a panic? Either way, it clearly had been a horrible massacre, and now monsters feared and hated humans greatly. She needed to watch her step. And she needed to show monsters not all humans were bad. Maybe it would get Undyne to stop hunting her down, and for Monster Kid to not want her beaten up if he ever found out what she really was. She didn't want fights, she just wanted to get home safely to Tina.

She moved on, stepping onto the bridge. Like the other one, it was dark and shadowy. A feeling of dread and of being watched came over her, and she knew what that meant, even before a blue spot glowed in front of her on the bridge. She was about to step back when two blue glowing holes appeared from behind her as well, then all around her.

Glowing jagged spears shot up all around her, and her terrified hazy mind wondered far back whether Undyne had enough honor to give her a fighting chance, wanted her to know that she was going to die, or just had terrible aim. But most of that was covered up by _"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit..."_

As soon as the spears disappeared, Frisk ran for it with Chara right beside her. Chara might have said something, but Frisk couldn't hear her over the sound of her heartbeat pounding in her ears and mind. Glowing spots appeared on the bridge, and Frisk dodged them before the spears popped up, but some missed her by only a hair.

She couldn't think. She couldn't breathe. All she could do was run. Left...Right...Up...Down...Dead end...run back...All the while, Undyne ran right under her, shooting spears through the bridge. Frisk could hear the menacing clanking of her armor on the bridge underneath her, and though she tried to lose her, Undyne was pretty damn fast, even in a heavy suit of armor, and Frisk was so panicked she had no clue where she was going as the bridge was a maze of turns and dead ends. Chara called out warnings when a new spear was about to come out, which helped Frisk dodge most, but one Frisk couldn't quite avoid still scratched her leg, though thankfully not deeply. She couldn't feel the pain through how terrified she was. She yelled out to Undyne to please stop at one point, but either Undyne didn't hear her or didn't care, and there was nothing she could do but keep running.

 _"Frisk! This way!"_ Chara called as she went high enough to see the other end of the bridge maze. Frisk ran that way, but she was slowing, and the spears were getting harder to avoid...

And then she heard a new voice.

...

"Hey, Undyne." Sans said, popping right up in front of her. "Whoa!" He had landed just a little close to the edge of the bridge and started to fall off. He let himself in order to distract Undyne, knowing he could teleport again or catch himself with blue magic if he had to.

Frisk had heard Sans yelp and turned to glance to see what was happening, only to see him start to fall. Chara screamed, and Frisk gasped and took a few steps to try to get to him, but knew there was no way she could make it on time even if Undyne wouldn't kill her before she got to him, but thankfully Undyne grabbed Sans's wrist and pulled him up to safety, having stopped short and looked down when she heard Sans's voice and seen him fall.

"Sans! You've got to be more careful with those damn shortcut things! You could have dusted yourself! What are you even doing here?!" Undyne scolded him, having momentarily forgotten Frisk in the shock of almost seeing one of her friend almost fall off a bridge.

Sans winked, making a subtle hand motion for Frisk to run for it, which she did. "Sorry, Undyne. Just decided to DROP IN and give you my daily report. Jerry's annoying people again and there's a Gyfttrot pileup on..."

"Now's not the time Sans! I'm trying to finish off the...human." Undyne realized what she was supposed to be doing and turned to look for the human, but of course Frisk had run off. She let out a stream of curse words as she ran to go catch up to the human.

Sans ran next to her. "Chill, 'Dyne. The kid's got no EXP or LOVE. You don't need to make the bridge more divine hunting her down. It's HOLE'Y enough."

"Nggahh! This is not the time for your stupid puns!" Undyne growled, having only been half paying attention to him. She put on a burst of speed and passed Sans up, forcing him to run after her. Being more athletic than Sans, she quickly left him in the dust.

...

With Chara's directions, Frisk had managed to make it onto the wider section of bridge at the south east side of the room, and just as Undyne had realized she was gone and come after her again, ran into the next room. She continued to run along the bridge, but came to a dead end, seeing what looked like a garbage dump twenty feet below her. She tried to turn back but there was the familiar and terrifying sound of clanking armor behind her. She turned to see Undyne looking at her coldly about ten feet away from her. Frisk opened her mouth to speak, to beg Undyne not to kill her, but before she could, Undyne threw a spear. It missed Frisk by a long shot, but struck the bridge right in between the slats of the boards. Before Frisk could run back to safety, the bridge split apart, the section Frisk was on falling towards the ground twenty feet below. She screamed and tried to grab onto something, but couldn't stop her fall. Chara was screaming right along with her and she could have sworn her ghostly friend had tried to grab and catch her in a panic, but of course was unable to. She felt herself slam against something and blacked out.

...

_Why wasn't she dead?_

_Everything hurt when she came back to consciousness on the hard dirt ground. When she tried to move her right arm to push herself up, a bolt of white hot pain shot through it, making her whimper. Stars filled her vision._

_She tried again, but even when she managed to push herself up with her left arm, another bolt of pain shot through her body when she tried to put weight on her left ankle and she crumpled back to the ground._

_"Help! Please, someone help!" she called weakly. She thought she had wanted to die, but it hurt so much, like fire through her body. She knew she would die slowly here, of dehydration or exposure or whatever came first. She would die in pain, cold, and alone, because no one would come...No one would help her...No one ever did..._

_But somebody came._

_"It sounds like it came from over here!" she faintly heard a young male voice say and footsteps came running up to her. She managed to turn and look up, and to her shock, saw a furry white monster. His face was similar to a goat's with long floppy ears, though his hands were five fingered and had claws at the end. He wore a striped shirt and looked to be about her height. At first she thought it had to be a costume, but he moved so fluidly and easily as he walked over to her and it looked so real that either it had to be either the world's best designed costume or..."_

_"Oh! You've fallen down, haven't you? Are you okay?" the young monster asked. His mouth moved easily as he talked, and she could see his teeth and tongue. No mask could move like this... He reached out his hand for her, and she instinctively flinched away, wincing in pain as she did._

_"Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you! Not ever!" he promised and moved more slowly. "Here, let me help you up. I can take you home and my mom and dad can heal you."_

_She was still scared, but looked up into his eyes, trying to figure out what he was about to do, but she couldn't help but relax just a tiny bit when she looked into them. They may have been red, and he may be a monster, but he had the kindest eyes she had ever seen. He held out his hand for her with a soft smile. He didn't grab her, just waited patiently with his hand still held out for her._

_She had no choice, not unless she wanted to die out here. If he had wanted to hurt or capture her, he would have already done it as she couldn't do anything back, just like THEY would have done to her. He wasn't Them. He wasn't even human, and with what humans were capable of doing, she was okay with that. Finally, she nodded and placed her hand into his._

_He smiled and took it, using his other arm to carefully lift her up, trying as best he could not to hurt her. Only a few times in her life had she been so gently touched. She was still prepared to run(or at least try since she didn't think she'd get very far) if he hurt her, but he didn't._

_"What's your name?" he asked her._

_"I'm Chara." she replied._

_"Chara, huh? That's a nice name. My name is..."_

...

Frisk groaned as she came back to consciousness and out of the memory. She opened her eyes only to find another face staring at her, just like it had in the memory she had obviously gotten from Chara. But instead of the gentle face of Asriel, she started into the beady black eyes of a smirking yellow flower.

"Howdy! Aww, you've fallen down again, haven't you?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since Flowey's right there, I didn't think this rather short chapter needed a Flowey's perspective ending. Frisk will be interacting with Flowey(not by her own will) off and on throughout the story. Papyrus and Sans will be helping Frisk a lot more often as well.
> 
> My theory on Sans's shortcuts is that they have limits. He can go from Snowdin to his Waterfall base, but going all the way from Snowdin to the captiol is too far for him to shortcut without dangerously draining his magic. He also needs to know the area well or risk a mistake that could cause him to get hurt. In this story he never just took Frisk through shortcut to Hotland because his station is too near the lava, and a mistake on that shortcut would be fatal for both of them.
> 
> My idea on Frisk's mother is that she was neglected when she was a child as well and ran away from home, getting hooked on drugs to cope with the pain inside. Frisk's father had a better home life, but had mental or emotional problems and got into a bad crowd as well as getting himself hooked on drugs as well to self treat his disorder, which went misdiagnosed.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoyed! Please leave a review and let me know what you think!


	11. The Madness Of Prince Flowey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk wakes up to a smirking Flowey, who tells her some hard truths about the Underground and Asgore's plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this story took so long, guys! First I had massive writer's block, then this turned out longer than I expected, and then my ending for the chapter changed, which is going to divert this story from canon in the next few chapters, including how and where Frisk rescuing MK(which, don't worry, will still happen!) and possibly how the Undyne fight will play out. This was an extremely hard chapter to write. I hope you guys enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

Frisk did what any fairly sane person would do upon waking up and seeing an evil psychopathic flower smirking at them three inches away from their face. She screamed and instinctively threw a punch.

Thankfully for Flowey, Frisk was still a bit disoriented from having hit her head and he was easily able to dodge the fairly weak punch, ducking into the ground and popping up again by her side. "Well, at least you have some fight in you." he said, not losing that smug smirk. He then looked up to the broken bridge where Frisk had fallen from. "Golly, that was a terrible fall! Good thing there was this nice soft pile of golden flowers here to keep you from breaking every bone in your body!" Frisk tried to get up and back away from him but the room spun and she started to fall. A set of long vines wrapped around her waist, stopping her from hitting the ground, and lowered her surprisingly gently back onto the flowers. "Now, now, let's not crack your skull open. C'mon, sit and talk to your old pal Flowey for a while." Much to Frisk's relief he retracted his vines once she was on the flowers again.

 _ **"Keep him talking. Sans was close by, hopefully he'll make it to us soon."**_ a very worried Chara told her, knowing Frisk would have trouble defending herself if Flowey attacked her in the condition that she was in and that she couldn't help her friend as she was a ghost.

"What is it you want from me?" Frisk asked Flowey, trying to keep any fear out of her voice.

"What do I want?" Flowey asked, still grinning. "I just wanted to see how you were doing on your little journey. Considering I found you unconscious in the dump, I'm going to say things aren't going so well for you. Your little talk or run plan isn't working so good now, is it?"

"Well, I'm not dead yet." Frisk said snarkily, going back to her self defense mechanism of using sarcasm to make people think she wasn't afraid.

Flowey was able to see right through the act. "Maybe not, but you WILL be if you don't fight back. Look, you and I both know that Undyne's not going to stop until you're dead. She's going to keep going after you, she's going to murder you in probably a very painful way, then she's going to take your soul. That is, unless you fight back and kill her before she kills you."

"For one thing, killing is wrong. I may not have the best moral compass on the planet, but I still know that. Plus, in logical terms, me, a teenage girl with two days of training going up against a warrior with YEARS of training and trying to kill her? Not exactly the smartest plan."

"Maybe not at your current level, but if you gained EXP and LOVE, you, being a human, would be much stronger than her. Easily able to take her on." Flowey told her.

"Um, what?" Frisk asked him. "Since it's you trying to give me the advice, I'm assuming you're not telling me to gain experience by making everyone love me."

Flowey shook his head with an exasperated sigh. "I'm talking about Execution Points and Levels Of Violence, idiot. Look, if you kill a monster, you gain EXP. Enough EXP and your level increases. It makes your soul become much stronger and raises all your stats and your HP."

"That's the sickest, most disgusting, most fucked up thing I've ever heard. I'm not killing a bunch of innocent monsters!"

"Why not? They're not as innocent as you think. Undyne wants you dead and they're cheering her on. They want your soul to be used to break the barrier. They want to be free, and they'd be more than willing to sacrifice you to do it if they actually knew you were human."

"Well, you mean besides the whole "killing is wrong." thing you're not listening to? Papyrus, Toriel, Sans, and even Aaron know I'm human and they've helped me. None of them want me dead." Frisk pointed out, though she did feel a slight chill as she remembered what Onionsan had said about Undyne getting everyone free. "And maybe the others are scared, but being kind means I can show them humans aren't so bad."

Flowey rolled his eyes. "So naive...Golly, you REALLY don't know what's Asgore's going to do if he does get ahold of your soul, do you? Asgore needs seven human souls to break the barrier. But he doesn't just plan on doing that. Oh no, he has a bigger goal in mind. He's going to absorb all seven souls, turn into a god, and start a war against humanity." He smirked at the look of shocked horror on Frisk's face.

 ** _"He's lying! He's got to be...I'm human...Dad wouldn't...He..."_** Chara whispered, just as horrified as Frisk.

"You're lying." Frisk said angrily to Flowey.

"Why would I lie when the truth is more effective?" Flowey retorted calmly. "Sorry, kiddo, but it's real. Just ask Undyne...if you can actually get her to monologue before stabbing you. Read the plaques. Ask any other monster. Well, don't ask Papyrus since he doesn't know and no one had the heart to tell him and I couldn't be bothered. Six humans have fallen before you. All six have died and Asgore has each and every soul. And guess who happens to be lucky number seven? Well, not so lucky for you." He smirked at the shocked teenager and patted her hand with a leaf. She quickly drew her hand back from him. Flowey sighed. "Look, I'm just trying to help you here. If you don't fight, you'll be killed and your soul will be taken to Asgore. And you're not the only human life on the line. You don't live too far from the mountain, do you? If Asgore and the monsters get out, I can see a certain little sister getting caught in the crossfire. You wouldn't want poor little Tina getting hurt or killed, would you?"

 _ **"Don't listen to him! Dad would never hurt your sister! Dad would never hurt anyone innocent!"**_ Chara told Frisk frantically.

Frisk wanted what felt like the devil and angel on her shoulder to shut up for a moment so she could actually think and try to process this(and try to ignore the fact that part of her was saying that Flowey had a point.). She was definitely scared out of her wits, but didn't want to let Flowey know it. "Of course I wouldn't! But how the hell do you even know I have a little sister and how do you know her name?!"

"Let's see, you told Toriel, you told Sans, and you told Papyrus all about your little sister and how scared you were for her. It's not exactly a secret, and I told you I'd be watching, didn't I? But that's not important right now. You love your poor little sister so much, don't you? Then you know what you have to do to keep her safe, to keep Asgore from starting a war against your people, don't you?" Flowey used a vine to pull out a dusty knife he had buried in the the ground. Frisk tensed. He smirked and dropped it in front of her. The blade glinted slightly in the light of the cavern and it looked wickedly sharp. "Here, you'll need this." Frisk just stared at it and Flowey grew impatient. "Or do you not care about that little sister of yours?"

Frisk glared at him. "I would do anything to protect my sister. Anything." she told him angrily. Flowey grinned, thinking he had won. Chara tensed.

Then it was Frisk's turn to smirk. "Which is exactly why I'm NOT killing anyone."

Flowey looked at her blankly. "What?"

Chara burst out laughing, and that and Flowey's expression made the stressed Frisk laugh too, making Flowey jump. For a second, she could have sworn his eyes softened, but she dismissed it as the product of her imagination and continued. "You may be a creepy stalker, Flowey, but you don't know a thing about me, or my sister. Tina is the kindest, sweetest little kid you will NEVER have the pleasure of meeting. She would never want me to kill, not even for her. And if I sunk as low as you seem to want me to go, killing for power, I'd become someone I'd never want to be around my baby sister. And maybe I'm not the greatest person, but I would never betray the people I love. Not Tina. Not Papyrus or Sans or Toriel or...any of the others." She managed to stop herself just in time before she said Chara's name. No way she wanted Flowey to know about her.

"Aww, so touching. But it's not going to save you from dying now, is it, idiot? Haven't thought of that now, have you? You tried being all nice. It's not like Undyne and Asgore are going to care. They still want you dead."

"...Because of the violence of other humans. Which is the second reason I was getting to before you interrupted me. Papyrus and Sans told me about the human who fell before me and killed a lot of monsters. And if you were listening to the same story as I was, which I know you did if you were watching me, you'd know that that human was killed by King Asgore. And if I started killing monsters, they'd all come after me, and I wouldn't blame them. They'd band together to kill me if that's what it took. I'd never survive that, LV or no LV, because it certainly didn't help that human. Doing this peacefully isn't only the right thing to do, Flowey, it's the only thing I can do if I want to stay alive and keep my sister safe in the long run." she pointed out.

Flowey laughed. "Good luck with that. You'll soon find out that being peaceful will not help you when you're going up against a monster truly determined to see you dead. You'll see it my way in time."

"Monsterkind cared about Chara and she was just as human as me. If I show them other humans can be nice like she was, they'll..." Frisk froze when she saw a look of absolute fury on Flowey's face.

"You think you can replace Chara?! You think you know anything about who she was?" Flowey growled. Frisk had to keep herself from trembling as while she'd seen Flowey's sadistic side, she'd never seen him in a rage before. "How dare you! Don't speak as if you know her! Like you know anything about this place and what it needs. You're just a weak stupid human who won't change anything. Just give up while you can." In his anger, he summoned some "friendliness pellets" and Frisk tried to scramble out of the way. But before Flowey could fire at her, there was a whirring sound followed by a blindingly bright beam of light which struck Flowey with a loud crackling boom which made Frisk fall back and cover her ears.

Flowey was sent flying back several feet and quickly ducked into the ground. Frisk rubbed her eyes trying to get rid of the white spots and looked to her savior.

She saw Sans, his left eye glowing with bright blue magic, a skeletal dragon head with viciously sharp teeth and pointed horns next to him, the very same creature Sans had used to threaten her with the day before she had battled Papyrus. Frisk eyed it nervously at the memory.

But the creature didn't seem interested in harming her as it moved with Sans as Sans walked towards her and offered a hand to help her up. It regarded her for a moment, but then the lights in it's sockets slowly turned to her right, staring right at Chara. Despite it being a skull, Frisk could have sworn its expression softened and if it had a tail, it would have been wagging. Frisk's eyes widened.

Sans thought it was out of fear and waved his hand, causing the creature to disappear as he helped Frisk to her feet. "You okay there, kid?"

"Well, I fell off a really high bridge, my head hurts, and a psychopath wants me to become his protege, but other than that I'm fine and dandy." Frisk snarked before realizing she had just been sarcastic to their rescuer. "Sorry, Sans." she said sheepishly. "I shouldn't have been a smartass. Thanks for saving me."

Sans shrugged. "No problem, kid." He knelt down and gently placed his hands over the bump on her head. Warm green magic surrounded her, taking away the headache and dizziness. She relaxed into it and thanked Sans. But no matter how much she wanted to forget Flowey's words, she still had to find out if he was lying or not. Not only her safety but her sister's safety depended on it.

"Sans?" Frisk asked very softly.

"Yes, kiddo?"

"How much of that did you hear?"

"Most of it." Sans sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't show myself sooner, but I needed to know what he was up to."

"Flowey was lying, wasn't he? King Asgore, did he really kill those children the lady in the ruins mentioned? Is-Is he going to use the souls to start a war? Please tell me he's not..." Sans looked away for a second, and Frisk looked at the ground. "Flowey told the truth, didn't he? I just didn't want to believe it..."

"Flowey may have told you the truth, but he didn't tell you all of it." Sans was quick to tell her. "Look, kid, the king did make the declaration in a moment of grief and anger after Chara and Asriel died, and he does have the souls, but you need to know that most weren't killed by his hand. There were accidents and another human also dusted a few monsters and was killed by their family members, but Asgore only ever killed two, and you remember what Papyrus told you about the one."

"And the other?" Frisk asked very softly.

"They were the only human who made it to the castle. I don't know what exactly happened as it happened when I was at another post, but Undyne found an injured and very upset Asgore. He took no joy in killing that human."

Frisk wondered whether the human who had made it to the castle had attacked Asgore first or if it had been the other way around. She could tell by Chara's face, not quite melty yet but looking like she was getting close with how twisted in anger it was, that Chara believed that Asgore had only killed the human in self defense and that the human was the one at fault.

But she also knew Chara was biased. Asgore was Chara's father and the monsters were her friends and family; of course she would never want to believe they could kill without reason. Frisk herself didn't want to believe it either; the monsters she had met so far(besides Undyne) had been kinder to her than most humans besides her sister had ever been, but she knew she had to prepare for the worst.

She was the seventh soul, the ticket to the monsters' freedom, Undyne was hunting her down, and by going to the castle, she, like the soul before, might be signing her own death warrant.

Deep in thought, she looked at the ground and noticed a clean but messily tied bandage wrapped around the wound Undyne's spear had made on her leg. She knew Sans hadn't done it, so it would have had to have been...

Flowey.

The more she met that flower, the more confusing he got. She didn't know why he had suddenly gone from wanting to kill her, to "helping" her to suddenly being angry with her again, or why Chara's name had set him off. But she wasn't going to let him screw with her head.

"Kid, you okay?" Sans asked, concerned as he sat down next to her. She shrugged. "It's going to be okay. Undyne will come around. Don't listen to Flowey. He was just trying to scare and manipulate you. You just keep doing what you're doing and being a good friend to everybody, okay?" He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Kid, with what monsters went through, some of them see humans as a faceless evil that kept us trapped down here and will hurt them and their loved ones. But you showing kindness is proving them wrong. I can tell you for certain that none of the monsters you befriended would ever want you dead. I promise. And trust me, I don't make promises that I know I can't keep."

Frisk felt a little better at his words. "Thanks, Sans. And don't worry. I have no intention of listening to that asshole flower, especially with how kind you guys have been to me. I would never betray any of you and I know better than to think that psycho is looking out for my best interests. In fact, here. Take this creepy thing. I don't want it." She carefully handed the knife Flowey had given her to Sans, handle side towards him. He took it and put it away somewhere. "I don't even want to think about whether he's used it or not." She then thought of something. Flowey had gone everywhere from murderous to irritated to just plain nuts, but he had always seemed to do it with a cool head. Nothing seemed to really get to him to make him feel anything other than irritation, until she had mentioned Chara. She had insulted Flowey right to his face and he had just taunted her, got mildly irritated, or laughed like it didn't matter to him, but when she had mentioned Chara, though it had been calmly and reasonably, he had exploded.

She realized now that it was the only time Flowey had ever showed true anger. Or anything resembling a real emotion, unless annoyance or psychopathic glee counted.

Had Chara meant something to him?

 _"Chara, did you know Flowey?"_ she mentally asked her friend. _"When I mentioned you to him, it definitely touched a nerve."_

Chara shook her head with a worried frown. **_"I've never met him before in my life. I've never even heard of him or of any golden flower monsters existing until you mentioned him to Sans at Grillby's. I don't know why he had such a reaction to me."_**

Frisk had a thought that made her shiver. _"Do you think he could have been stalking you? Gotten obsessed with you or something?"_

**_"How could he have been stalking me? And why the hell would he?"_ **

_"I don't know. He's crazy and has been stalking me, so he could have done it to you... And I never knew until he told me...We didn't even see him, Chara..."_ Frisk began to shiver more.

"Kid?" Sans asked, worried.

"Sans...We gotta tell Papyrus...Flowey's crazy, he's been stalking me, he tries to hurt people...What if he sneaks up on you or him? This is really dangerous, Sans!"

"Kid, calm down, I can handle it." Sans tried to soothe her.

"I know you're really tough, Sans, but you have one HP! Flowey's good at concealing himself; what if he sneaks up you?! I don't want you to get hurt, Papyrus doesn't want you to get hurt...You have to tell him. Papyrus is strong. He can help us. And we can't just avoid telling him about this. We know Flowey's been in contact with Papyrus. He could hurt him."

"I'm going to do it myself. Papyrus doesn't need to get involved in this mess." Sans told her, his voice rising a little. "Like I told you, Papyrus will end up trying to handle this himself if he knows. I'm not putting him in that kind of danger!"

"So you're going to do the exact same thing you're worried he's going to do?! Do you know how freaking dangerous that is?! He's going to be freaked if he finds out you're going after someone like that on your own! He's already worried about you. Do you think he wants you doing this alone and getting hurt or worse?"

"It's better it happens to me than him!" Sans yelled, startling both himself and Frisk. Frisk was about to reply, but someone else beat her to it.

'NO IT ISN'T!"

...

Both Frisk and Sans jumped at the voice and looked up. Papyrus was standing on the bridge above them. The taller skeleton then nimbly leapt down the rocks on the cliff wall, heading down towards them.

"Hey, bro." Sans said casually, trying to cover up what happened. "When did you get here?"

"A FEW SECONDS AGO, BUT LONG ENOUGH TO KNOW YOU'RE GOING TO DO SOMETHING DANGEROUS AND GO AFTER SOMEONE WHO'S MAKING BOTH OF YOU TRULY SCARED AND THAT YOU'RE NOT TELLING ME BECAUSE YOU DON'T WANT ME TO GET HURT! SANS, WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?! WHO'S SCARING BOTH OF YOU LIKE THIS?!" Papyrus looked between them both, arms crossed, concerned and a little angry.

"It's nothing to worry about, bro. The human's just overreacting. It's not anything I can't handle." Sans told him.

"I'm not overreacting!" Frisk protested.

'THE HUMAN'S RIGHT! SANS, IF SOMETHING BAD'S HAPPENING, I DON'T WANT YOU TO GO IT ALONE! WHY WON'T YOU TALK TO ME?! WHY WON'T YOU LET ME HELP YOU?!" Papyrus's voice softened. "Don't you trust me?"

"What? Paps, of course I trust you!"

"Then, please brother, let me in. Tell me what's wrong. Sans, I know you hide things to try to protect me, but it goes both ways! You're my big brother. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you." Papyrus pleaded as he got to Sans's level and gently placed his hands on his brother's shoulderS. "Please let me help you. I want to protect you too. But you have to tell me the truth."

"Bro, everything is fine. I'm fine."

"Sans, I know when you're lying. You need to tell me what's going on." Papyrus told him. Both he and Frisk were looking at Sans, not letting this go.

Sans's breath stuttered a little and his magical eye lit up as he became trapped in a memory.

...

_"You need to tell me what's going on. I can help you, brother!"_

_Papyrus had gently pushed him until Sans had told his brother the truth about his flowery friend. About how Flowey had started off peaceful, but seemed to grow bored with peace and began attacking people._

_He should have known better. Papyrus was just as protective of Sans as Sans was of him, and coupled with Papyrus's belief that anyone could be good if given the chance and that reason would always work, no matter what, Papyrus had taken action. Sans had come home after a failed search for Flowey to find a note from Papyrus_ _, telling him that he would reason with Flowey and get Flowey on the right path. Sans had panicked and rushed to find his brother, only to find Flowey, who once upon a timeline had loved to ride on Papyrus's shoulder, cooking with him and calling him "friend," crushing Papyrus's skull to dust..._

_He had murdered the bastard after that, impaling him with a thousand pointed bones, burning him alive slowly with lasers, killing the flower a hundred different ways. But Flowey hadn't stayed dead, simply LOADING over and over and over. But Flowey couldn't best him either and eventually gave up and reset. Sans had awoken in his own room and rushed into Papyrus's, waking his brother and pulling him into a tight hug. He refused to tell Papyrus what was wrong._

_He couldn't lose him again._

_But he had._

_..._

_It was another run. A full on genocide this time._

_Sans went off to find Flowey, lying to Papyrus about where he was going. This time, Flowey found Sans first, and he was much, much stronger this time. Between firing bullets, Flowey had told him that he asked Papyrus to meet him here, but it would be far too late for Sans. Flowey wanted to see exactly how powerful a grieving Papyrus was. He called it a "Disbelief Run."_

_Sans had fought off Flowey as best he could, killing him dozens of times, but he couldn't take down what couldn't die, and the evil flower had memorized his pattern as well as gaining a lot of LV, but not enough to trigger Karmatic Retribution. Flowey had managed to knock Sans down to his last HP and as he had fired the last shot, there was a scream, then Papyrus, who had arrived quicker than Flowey had anticipated, jumped between Flowey and Sans, taking the blow himself._

_It was a one hit betrayal kill, crushing Papyrus's ribs, severing his spine, and cracking his soul._

_Yet Papyrus had still managed to turn to Sans and whisper, "Brother...Are you all right...?" before dusting in Sans's arms. Sans had been unable to heal him, unable to save him, and Flowey had fled after striking the blow._

_He had to live without his brother for two weeks before Flowey reset._

_When he woke in Snowdin again, only one HP remained._

_He didn't let his brother out of his sight for a long time._

_Papyrus was the same way after seeing Sans's HP had suddenly dropped from sixty to one, but no matter how much Papyrus pleaded with him to tell him what was wrong, he refused to say what was happening. Papyrus didn't remember the last timeline beyond some "bad dreams" that Sans convinced him were just nightmares, and Sans didn't want him to remember._

_He knew how much Papyrus would risk himself for him._

_And he wouldn't let it happen again._

_..._

"Sans? Sans, are you all right, brother?"

"Sans?"

Sans snapped to reality, looking into the concerned eyes of Papyrus and the human. He couldn't tell Papyrus what was going on! He couldn't lose him again.

He backed away quickly and teleported away.

"Sans!" Papyrus called after him fruitlessly. "Oh no...Human, please tell me what happened. What got him like this?" he asked worriedly.

Frisk didn't hesitate. "There's this flower monster...Flowey...Do you know him?"

"I do. He's one of my friends. Is something wrong with him?" Papyrus asked in concern.

"Papyrus...He's not such a good guy. He tried to kill me when I first came down here. Mom had to throw a fireball at him to save me. And suddenly he seemed to have changed tactics and he's been following me and he keeps telling me I'm in danger, that King Asgore and Undyne are going to kill me and I need to start fighting and gain LV or I'll be dead. Of course, I told him I would not." Frisk was quick to tell him.

"I know you would never do that, human." Papyrus reassured her. He knelt down and hugged her close. "I'm sorry Flowey scared you, but I think I know what he's doing."

Frisk looked up at him in complete confusion.

"I think he feels guilty about hurting you and he wants to help you, but he's going about it the wrong way. Flowey's not the best at saying sorry and he has his own way of showing things. We've been friends for almost a year and I know him well enough to understand his Flowey speak but it sometimes scares other people. But don't be scared, human. It's just a front he puts up. He's been through a lot...but he still shouldn't be scaring you and Sans like this. I'll talk to him and show him how to become a great friend to you and Sans. I know he wants to. He's just not doing it right."

Frisk still wasn't sure. "Sans told me Flowey was a master manipulator and that he treated violence and screwing with people's lives like it was a game." she said softly. "Please be careful..."

Papyrus frowned, more than a little worried. He knew both Sans and the human were telling at least what they believed to be the truth as Sans would never lie about something this serious and though he hadn't known the human that long, he knew she was being completely earnest. But he knew Flowey and though he knew his friend could be insensitive and even a little mean at times, he didn't think Flowey truly intended to hurt anybody, just to keep people from getting too close, and he appreciated Flowey's brutal honesty as the flower was the only one(well besides the human) that didn't treat him like a child. Flowey could say some rather violent things when upset, feeling threatened, trying to get a reaction, or just when he felt like it though, so had Flowey said something to or near Sans that Sans thought he was serious about? Or was something more going on?

_Did he really not know Flowey as well as he thought he did?_

**_((Dreams of thorny vines wrapping around his brother; a high pitched evil laugh...A silhouette looming over Sans...running to save him...searing pain...))_ **

Papyrus shook his now throbbing skull, trying to rid it of the shadow of one of the nightmares he had had several months ago. Why was he thinking like this? Flowey was his friend, there may have been a misunderstanding somewhere along the line. He had to hear Flowey's side of the story and give them all a chance, then help them all become proper friends. After all, making friends with everyone was easy!

"Papyrus, are you okay?" Frisk asked worriedly, snapping Papyrus out of his thoughts.

"I AM FINE! DO NOT FEAR, HUMAN!" Papyrus told her, switching to his normal voice as Papyrus wanted to reassure her. "I WILL TALK TO FLOWEY AND SANS AND FIND OUT WHAT IS GOING ON. EVERYTHING'S GOING TO BE OKAY. THERE MIGHT HAVE JUST BEEN SOME SORT OF MISUNDERSTANDING. FLOWEY CAN BE A LITTLE...INTENSE SOMETIMES, BUT I KNOW HE'S A GOOD PERSON DEEP DOWN. HE'S VERY NICE WHEN HE LETS HIS WALLS DROP, AND I'LL SHOW HIM HOW TO BE A GOOD FRIEND TO YOU BOTH!"

"Please be very careful." Frisk pleaded. "I know you're extremely strong, Papyrus, but Flowey...he feels dangerous. He scares me and I don't know what he's capable of. I know you've known him way longer than I have and you might be right about him...but please.. be careful just in case... You're one of the best friends I've ever had, and I don't want anything to happen to you."

Papyrus felt his soul warm at the earnest words and the soft brown eyes gazing into his sockets. He was swept away by her care for him and the fact that she was honest with him. He gently clasped his friend's small calloused hands in his gloved ones. "It's going to be okay, human. But I will be careful. I promise." he said softly. He then noticed the bandage on her leg and looked at it in concern. "What happened?" he asked softly.

"I-I ran into Undyne again. I survived. The bridge I was on didn't." Frisk joked weakly.

Papyrus knelt down and sent some light healing magic into her leg to heal anything the bandage hadn't, then checked her over to see if she had any more wounds. She flinched when he gently touched her back.

"I think it's just bruised." she reassured him when he looked at her in concern.

"Can I check it?" he asked softly. She looked a little embarassed but nodded so he carefully lifted her shirt to check her back, feeling sick as he saw a massive bruise which was an angry bright purple, green, and red.

"I'm okay. I just hit the ground a bit hard." she told him.

Papyrus glanced up to the gaping hole in the bridge, realizing exactly how far she must have fallen. She was lucky her spine hadn't broken. _It's getting worse...If I don't stop this...Undyne...She...She really could kill..._ he thought to himself, unable to finish the sentence even in his thoughts as he tenderly healed the bruise. He wasn't as good with healing magic as Sans, but the bruise thankfully faded away and she thanked him with a sigh of relief at the pain going away. "We'd better stick together, human." he told her gently. He was NOT leaving her on her own after this. "I'll help you get through the Underground. I need to look for Sans first though."

"I'll help you." she promised, worried about Sans too, especially with Flowey on the loose. Papyrus smiled and scooped her up gently, placing her on his shoulders. She instinctively hung onto him as he ran for the cliff, using Blue Magic to scale them almost effortlessly.

They never saw the beady black eyes watching them.

...

Flowey sighed as he watched them go. Of course he had to go and lose his temper when Chara's name was mentioned.

((It didn't help that the human looked, acted, and even sounded so much like her.))

And now she thought he was even more of a psychopath. Well, he was, but it would still make his plan a lot harder. And this time he couldn't just kill or reset over it. He knew killing would not only be not so helpful to his plan, but would likely mean his own life would end as well.

However, Papyrus, sweet, naive Papyrus, still believed in him, and believed that he had been trying to protect the human in his own twisted Flowey way. Which was sort of the truth, even though he had his own agenda.

Though now Papyrus was staying with the human to protect her, which would cause him to need to change his plans. He would need to play the apologetic, well meaning but misguided flower to keep Papyrus trusting him. And to get the human to start, though it was clear she was a lot less trusting and would be a much harder sell than Papyrus.

But though this complicated things, it also would provide some very interesting new choices for him to play with, some new options he had never gotten the chance to try before. The connection between the human and Papyrus was obvious, even to someone like Flowey who was incapable of feeling love or friendship.

She clearly cared deeply for the skinny trashbag, and the feeling was definitely mutual to the point where Papyrus was ready and willing to risk his dream for her.

And on that note...

It was time he told Papyrus the full truth about the Underground, the one he knew his skeletal friend was already starting to suspect.

He wasn't fully sure if the human had the Reset ability now or if she was just cancelling him out(though he suspected the former) but he knew what would happen to her if she didn't have it. What Asgore or Undyne or the Royal Guard would do to her, no matter whether she was good or evil or something in between.

And it was time Papyrus knew as well. Though likely nothing in the world could convince Papyrus to kill or even seriously injure(he had tried), the skeleton was highly protective of the people he cared about, and if he could get Papyrus to believe him, the fallout would be EXTREMELY interesting to watch.

It was time to cause some chaos.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys enjoyed, and yeah, our poor cinnamon roll is going to be going through a rough time emotionally in the next few chapters. Thankfully, Frisk will be there for him, even if Flowey tries to make it worse.
> 
> I'd like to give a big shoutout to the amazing Stallionwolf and KaoruKeehl for all their help and advice with this story! Thank you so much guys! You're the best! Please be sure to check out their stories as they have some great stuff!

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this! Frisk will be a little more mature than other thirteen year olds to a point, but I promise I won't make her a Mary Sue. She will have problems with things and make plenty of mistakes. 
> 
> If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to let me know!


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